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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125630">The Arrival: Form Voltron</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesNo_couldbeSo/pseuds/YesNo_couldbeSo'>YesNo_couldbeSo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Paladins of Hogwarts [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Fluff and Angst, Magic, Multi, Rivalry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:47:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>31,792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesNo_couldbeSo/pseuds/YesNo_couldbeSo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the second year at Hogwarts for our paladins. Keith starts attracting a lot of unwanted attention which only makes Lance deepen the rivalry, supposedly. He finally gets a real friend and all of team Voltron manage to get sucked into the deep history of a brutal cult.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Acxa &amp; Ezor &amp; Lotor &amp; Narti &amp; Zethrid (Voltron), Adam &amp; Keith (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura &amp; Coran &amp; Hunk &amp; Keith &amp; Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt &amp; Shiro, Allura &amp; Hunk &amp; Keith &amp; Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk &amp; Keith &amp; Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk &amp; Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith &amp; Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance &amp; Veronica (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Paladins of Hogwarts [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic has taken weeks to write and has been such a fun project to work on. I promise this fic won't be abandoned and it would be incredible if it got more reads, in this tiny fandom that is.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance ran at the wall between platforms 9 and 10 then stumbled through onto platform 9 ¾. His mother said that he still wasn’t old enough to go by himself yet so they would watch the train leave. Veronica complained, she was wishing for the day they would just leave after a single goodbye. Lance was too excited to care. He only saw Hunk a week before and already missed him. He couldn’t wait to see Pidge; he missed her, a lot. He and his family waited to the side for Hunk to appear. After about 10 or so minutes his best friend rushed through the brick wall. He ran over and pulled him into a hug, hard.</p>
<p>“This year is going to be even more fun than the last! Now we can take care of magical creatures and can stop doing boring arithmetic,” said Lance excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Hunk beamed back at him.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I bet Coran’s class will be awesome.” They waited for Pidge to burst through the wall so they could do a massive group hug. When she finally came, they gasped in shock.</p>
<p>She didn’t run through, she simply walked looking down. Her hair had been hacked short as if she cut it off herself. She wore her brother’s glasses which looked like they had been bent with some force and then carefully straightened out. The left lens was cracked slightly. She saw them and walked over, her mother kissed her on the cheek then left, she had stayed last time.</p>
<p>“Hey Pidge wow. What happened? You look like a mini version of Matt,” said Lance trying his hardest not to be rude but failing miserably.</p>
<p>She stiffened at the mention of her brother’s name and looked down sadly, her eyes reflecting sorrow and misery. Lance could see that behind the glasses her eyes were slightly red and puffy, he’d never seen Pidge cry before. She was always so strong, so what could possibly rattle her?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“Hey Katie.” Pidge spun around to see who was talking as her friends looked over her shoulder. It was Keith. Pidge could tell Lance was scowling at him, but she didn’t care. Keith looked shy, hesitant. Above all he looked the saddest and most empathetic she’d ever seen.</p>
<p>“I’m so sorry.” He looked down ashamed. Pidge knew full well that Shiro was the first person in Keith’s life who cared about him, and he was ripped away just like her family was. In that moment, it didn’t matter that he was Keith Kogane, he was just a boy who lost his brother as she was a girl who lost hers. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened at her touch then hesitantly hugged her back.</p>
<p>“It means a lot coming from you. I haven’t been the nicest and I can imagine what it feels like,” she whispered. He held her tighter, she knew he wasn’t one for hugs or being touched, and she wasn’t either. But she knew they both needed it. She took one hand away, reached into her small, heavily patched satchel and pulled out Shiro’s wand and ring. She pressed them into Keith’s hand and said, “You deserve to have these. I’m sorry the ministry kept them. And, you can call me Pidge” They broke apart finally and he half smiled at her then stuffed the wand and ring into his own bag.</p>
<p>Pidge faced her friends and their mouths were opened wide. “Is it alright if Keith-“ she started. “Nope, don’t finish that sentence. He’s gone anyway. What was all that about?” asked Lance incredulously. She looked behind her to see that Keith had already walked off. She knew that he wouldn’t stay but still hoped.</p>
<p>She took her bags off the trolly and headed to the train without a word. “Hey, Pidge, wait up,” called Lance. She stepped on the train and her friends said their goodbyes to their families. She found an empty compartment and took out her biggest book. It was able to hide her face so she could hold her father’s and brother’s wands to her heart. She had sewn an inside pocket into all the items of her uniform so she could have the wands with her at all times.</p>
<p>Lance and Hunk came in quietly then Lance got out Ladyblue so she could wander. She had grown in the past few months. The small cat leapt across the seats and settled on Pidge’s lap.</p>
<p>They were silent until the train jolted ready to leave the station. “Any chance you’re going to tell us what that was about? You cut your hair and freaking hugged Keith! Keith frickin’ Kogane! We’re your best friends Pidge, you can tell us,” said Lance.</p>
<p>She didn’t say anything. Pidge knew in her heart that her family hadn’t been split apart, but it really felt as though it had. Staying silent helped a lot, her friends could respect that, so she stayed quiet for the entire train journey. The other two chatted quietly and shot her looks as though they were trying to figure out what had happened to make her change so drastically.</p>
<p>She let them try to figure it out, had they been under a rock the whole summer? How could they not know?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The train ride had been incredibly awkward. Lance truthfully had no idea what was going on and hoped that Pidge would let him do her hair because that style was doing her no justice. He was excited to ride in the carriages instead of the ride across the lake, for one it would be so much more comfortable than a rickety wooden boat. They walked over to the line at the end of the station to wait for a ride. There was the sound of hooves, the rustle of leaves and the crunch of gravel as the carriages arrived. They looked really cool, being pulled all by themselves.</p>
<p>They were near the end of the line as they had to pack all their stuff. Lance heard a very loud, “whoa,” from just behind him. He turned to see Keith gaping at the carriages. He walked past them and right over to the lined-up carriages. He stared at the front as if there was some kind of invisible steed pulling at the reigns. He held out his hand and stroked the air as if he was stroking an animal. People were giving him very strange looks, Pidge stared intently as they neared.</p>
<p>“What’s he doing?” asked Hunk, baffled. “He can see the thestrals,” Pidge said almost breathlessly. “Thestrals?” asked Lance, still looking at Keith.</p>
<p>“It’s a sort of dragon-like horse. They’re demonised by the ministry and almost went extinct before Dumbledore gave them a place at Hogwarts. To pull the carriages.”</p>
<p> “So how come we can’t see them but apparently Keith can?” asked Hunk as they climbed into the penultimate carriage.</p>
<p>“You can only see a thestral if you’ve seen death. If you’ve seen someone die before your eyes.” Lance looked at the front of the carriage, he’d never seen death before. He noticed that the last carriage took up the rear behind them. Keith was smiling at the creature Lance couldn’t see and was still stroking it as the carriage moved, if he wasn't mistaken then Keith was whispering to the creature.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The students filed into the castle. People were staring at Keith with new fear as if they forgot he went to their school. People were also staring at Pidge, but with more confusion than anything. Her hair isn’t that bad, leave her the frick alone! They walked up the staircases and he definitely heard snide giggling behind them. He spun around and gave the girls the evil eye so they would back off. Only one person was going to make fun of Pidge and that was him, once she got out of this funk.</p>
<p>They went into the great hall to see the normal house flags above the tables had been replaced with black. There were two lines of blue and a line of green in the middle. What was happening? It was obvious that something really bad happened. Judging from the other students' faces, they also had no idea what was going on.</p>
<p>He sat near the end of Gryffindor table with Pidge by him and Hunk in line with her on Hufflepuff table. Keith sat directly at the end, he looked at the flags sadly. Did he know what happened? The first years trudged in, a few were a little wet, but most weren’t. They were sorted quickly and the new Gryffindors stared at Keith, trying to sit as far away from him as possible. Dumbledore stood at the podium solemnly and began to speak.</p>
<p>“Dear students and faculty. I assume you have noticed the flags are not their normal colours. We hang these sombre banners when a student or teacher has sadly left us. Some of you may have heard about the Kerberos mission, it was an intelligence gathering operation composed of three outstanding aurors. The head of the auror office, professor Shirogane and a beloved student, Matt Holt.”</p>
<p>Lance felt his heart in his throat, Pidge lost her dad and brother and he didn’t know! Hunk wore a mirrored expression of horror. Keith had been acting weird earlier. Lance looked over at him and shuddered. Keith had his head pushed into his hands, his longish black hair was falling over his face in a waterfall of misery. It looked as if he was fighting hard not to cry. Lance wondered why he looked utterly destroyed, was he really that close to Shiro?</p>
<p>“We will greatly mourn the loss of our incredible defence against the dark arts teacher and one of the greatest students we’ve ever known.”</p>
<p>There was suddenly a chill to the room as all the Hogwarts ghosts drifted through the walls. Their resident poltergeist had lost his expression of mischief and joviality, he whispered something to Dumbledore, who then nodded and stepped aside; the ghost began to speak in a voice heavy with sadness.</p>
<p>“Matt and Shiro were awesome. They helped me with my pranks, and I helped them with theirs. Shiro was a better teacher than I thought he would be. Matt was always good in class but naughty out. Their younger versions probably feel sadder than me, it makes me sad. This is new, I’m going to miss them. I hope you all remember Matt and Shiro cause I will never forget them,” said Peeves.</p>
<p>He sunk through the floor and left. Everyone knew that Peeves was a nuisance, but they never thought he actually cared for the students like him.</p>
<p>“If anyone wishes to relay feelings about this, feel free to come and speak to me, all the faculty members and I are always happy to listen, no matter the student or subject of conversation. Commence with your meals and if you please, a moment of silence for our great loss.” The food appeared with a pop at the table and everyone remained fully silent.</p>
<p>When the prefects stood, everyone followed silently except for Lance and Hunk. They ran out of their lines at the tables and hurried to Pidge as fast as they could. Lance got there first and embraced his small friend. “Oh god Pidge I’m so sorry. I just don’t like the news, I should have said something,” said Lance. Hunk then hugged them both almost squeezing the life out of them. No one told them to move.</p>
<p>“I can’t imagine what you’re feeling. I’ve got two siblings and Lance has 4. I can’t imagine even one going away. I’m really, utterly, truly sorry,” said Hunk. When they broke apart all the students had left the great hall.</p>
<p>“They’re not gone and I’m going to prove it.” Pidge walked off hurried and they exchanged looks of pity for their friend. Everyone channelled their grief in different ways, it appeared Pidge did so in anger.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“Just don’t think about it. He didn’t really leave, he’s just not here right now. He wouldn’t leave me; he wouldn’t leave Adam. There’s going to be a new teacher, just let it be. Don’t lose control. Don’t lose control. For the love of the universe and all things cryptid, don’t lose control.” Keith repeated this to himself over and over again. He felt deep in his heart that Shiro wasn’t gone. He needed his temper under control.</p>
<p>Shiro and Adam would lose it if he got expelled, he couldn’t do that to them. He repeated it to himself, “Shiro isn’t gone. Keep yourself under control. Bad things will happen if you don’t.” He clenched his fists in anger then realised the portrait hole closed before he went in and he hadn’t been listening when the prefects said what the password was. He considered for a moment.</p>
<p>“Shiro is awesome?” The fat lady shook her head sadly. “Takashi and Matt will always be remembered?” The portrait hole opened. He shrugged and went straight to his room to make sure he didn’t lose his temper at anyone. It had been months since the last time he jinxed someone, he knew he was more powerful and didn’t want to cause anyone harm. He didn’t want people to hurt just because he was, that wasn’t how he worked.</p>
<p>He lay on his bed and drew the curtains; he hated vulnerability and would wither of embarrassment if anyone saw him like that.</p>
<p>Kosmo could tell he wasn’t feeling good, he made his fur thicken slightly. Kosmo knew full well that stroking him always calmed Keith down.</p>
<p>He hadn’t had an episode in a while, the last one was when he was 9 and he was hit by the father in a group home in front of all the kids. He lost it and made the man fly against the wall. He broke his neck and Keith had been sent to a detention centre for a few months. When the services dragged him out, he lost it and they knocked him unconscious.</p>
<p>Keith never wanted to lose control again. His situation was practically begging for it to happen. Everyone was acting like Shiro was gone, if he didn’t get himself under control, he’d get himself killed or worse, expelled.</p>
<p>Kosmo purred as Keith stroked him. He had to ask. “Do you think Shiro is still alive somewhere?” he asked his kitten. He looked up at him and blinked slowly (that often meant yes). Keith smiled down at him and kept stroking, curling his fingers into the fur. About an hour later the other second years came in. That idiot G/J, the silent one, the one with the funny hat and McClain. He was writing in that notebook again.</p>
<p>Keith could see G/J was shooting him dirty looks through the crack in his curtains. The other two boys simply didn’t look at him. McClain on the other hand, he wasn’t glaring daggers at him, he looked concerned. Did he really look that bad?</p>
<p>Adam kept himself together much better than Keith did, he went about his work like normal but burst into tears a few times, anything reminding him of Shiro could do that. He would stroke his engagement ring and whisper to himself.</p>
<p>Keith would lock himself in his room and try to calm himself down. He endured many hugs from Adam when he wouldn’t come out for meals. Adam gave great hugs, comforting. He wondered why he didn’t give in to contact from him sooner. Now Keith didn’t have Adam to give comforting hugs. He hugged Kosmo as he drifted off to keep back the tears and remind him that he will find Shiro.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The next week of school was incredibly mundane, people avoided him like the plague, as usual. However, this time he saw Pidge getting the same treatment.</p>
<p>Everyone avoided her except for the McClain boy and tall, dark and handsome (don't berate him, the boy was objectively handsome. He could admit people were handsome! Like McClain boy, he was <em><strike>hot</strike></em> rather nice-looking. Keith had even seen him moisturise and use facemasks; an endlessly fascinating line of cosmetics littered his bedside table - not that Keith ever paid any attention to the contents of his bedside table).</p>
<p>Classes were dull and the school hadn't had time to find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at such short notice. The ministry interfered and sent them an idiot who was apparently second in command to Mr. Holt. Keith thought this couldn’t be true as professor Haxus was a straight up idiot. And he kept shooting Pidge dirty looks. He thought it was incredibly rude.</p>
<p>He tried to convince himself to ask for a place on the team, but every time he walked up to McGonagall's office to knock and ask, he would turn on his heel and walk off. For some reason he could never bring himself to take the leap.</p>
<p>He got a letter on the next Wednesday from Adam asking if he had made the team yet, Keith didn't know what to say, he had been trying but never committing. He decided then and there that he would live up to his promise.</p>
<p>For Shiro, and only Shiro.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The New Marauders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The resident golden trio discover an ancient map given to Pidge by her brother. They become the newest generation of Hogwarts marauders. Keith finally works up the courage to join the Gryffindor team, it goes better than expected.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I put a Zelda reference in because it's my favourite video game franchise of all time. Niamh is incredible at editing and writing quidditch scenes so you're in for a treat.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Pidge had been snapping at Hunk and Lance constantly. She always seemed angry and suspicious. Finally, Lance got tired of it and asked her how they could help. She sighed.</p>
<p>“Everyone’s acting like Matt’s gone. He’s not. He wouldn’t leave without a goodbye. When he left for the mission, he said hasta la vista Pidge. He’ll see me when he sees me. If he was going away for good, he would have said bye, he knows he’s going to come back to me and it feels like a stab through the heart. I just wish everyone would stop treating me like I’m going to break. I’m not fragile but if they keep staring at me like that, I’m going to lose it.” They were quiet for a few moments.</p>
<p>“That was one hella’ good rant. How about this, we’ll shoot daggers at anyone who insinuates such a thing. K?” said Lance warmly. Pidge laughed. “I didn’t know you knew big words like insinuate.” Lance pouted as Hunk and Pidge broke down, cackling away. Normally he would have made a comeback but just wanted to hear his friends laugh for once.</p>
<p>“Hey, I wanted to show you guys something. Matt gave me this awesome present before he left, he said it was given to him by a bunch of troublemakers and it’s been passed down through all the best pranksters at Hogwarts.” She reached delighted into her bag and brought out a plain piece of parchment. They stared at it, faces blank; she smiled back at them wickedly and tapped her wand to it.</p>
<p>“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” The boys’ mouths dropped as they watched the parchment unfold into some kind of map. On the front it read:</p>
<p>
  <em>The Hogwarts Marauders proudly present</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>The Marauders Map.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Messers:</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>You are officially the new Hogwarts marauders. Name yourselves in honour of we original mischief makers. Who passed you the map was a true Hogwarts marauder, make your ancestors proud and make the best mischief. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Our past marauders are listed, live up to our expectations and pass it down for when you leave.</em>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>“Well that’s awesome. Your brother was a Hogwarts marauder, I read about the map in Hogwarts: A History. Apparently, it was created by regular students and has been passed down through generations. The biggest number was always four,” said Hunk.</p>
<p>“That is pretty cool. Who were the past ones?” asked Lance. They looked inside and saw how big the map was. It was a writhing expanse of ink and parchment. Words curling in elegant script around rooms and corridors, the map was littered with dots. Peering closer, the dots moved across the paper, following the path of different passageways. Each dot embellished with a name, written in the same curling script as the place names. Secret passageways outlined for all those true mischief makers.</p>
<p>Along one the side of the map was a list of all the past marauders. Each one written in a different person’s handwriting, passing down the tradition of mischief makers and pranksters extraordinaire. The 3 at the bottom struck a chord. <em>Loony, Pater and Starry.</em> “That sounds like Matt, Shirogane and there’s someone else,” said Lance observantly.</p>
<p>“Yeah, the other person is Shirogane’s boyfriend Adam. Wait, damn it I never reached out to him. Ugh, I was so busy,” said Pidge looking down. Hunk squeezed her shoulder.</p>
<p>“I’m sure he understood,” he said reassuringly.</p>
<p>“Off topic, we can see where everyone is. This means we can get around easier, fun. We need names, ideas, people,” said Lance snapping his fingers, “I want to be ‘Sharpshooter’.” He made his classic finger guns as he said it. Pidge rolled her eyes.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“Cause I am a perfect shot, I would be a great beater and water guns have nothing on me.”</p>
<p>“Fine, I’ve got no ideas. Hunk, how ‘bout you?”</p>
<p>“I want to be Mechanic. I’m a pretty good one and ‘The Chef’ doesn’t sound nearly as cool. You can be Nayru.”</p>
<p>“Who’s Nayru?”</p>
<p>“In my favourite video game franchise, Legend of Zelda, there are the 3 golden goddesses who created the world, the most powerful gods of all. Nayru’s the goddess of wisdom and Zelda bares her triforce. Or you can be Nayrda, Nayru’s dragon spirit.”</p>
<p>“You know what, I like that. Don’t care if it’s a muggle reference. I’m Nayru, goddess of wisdom, bow down to me peasants.” They chuckled, past mourning of lost families forgotten. They tapped their wands to the parchment.</p>
<p>“Sharpshooter.”</p>
<p>“Mechanic.”</p>
<p>“Nayru.”</p>
<p>The names appeared on the Map, Pidge’s chicken scratch writing worthy of a muggle doctor, Lance’s elegant slanted script and Hunk’s exacting letters. It now read:</p>
<p>
  <em>The Hogwarts Marauders proudly present</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>The Marauders Map.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Messers: </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Sharpshooter, Mechanic, Nayru</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They stared at it. “Does this thing know proper English grammar? Where’s the and, and the full stop?” asked Hunk outraged (the more you got to know Hunk, the more you realised that he cares about simple stuff like that). “Maybe we’re waiting for another. Maybe the map knows who the messers are,” said Pidge. Lance shrugged.</p>
<p>“Well now I’m an official bad boy and Pidge I never pictured you as a bad girl.”</p>
<p>“Really Lance, have you been waiting for this moment your entire life? Gonna become a heartbreaker?”  she asked sarcastically, “also no, I’m not a ‘bad girl’ per say. I’m a nerd who happens to want to break a few rules, oooh ho ho ho this is going to be fun.”</p>
<p>They spent the next hour or so pouring over the map, tracing paths with their fingers, watching Dumbledore pace in his study and following McGonagall (she was a well of endless fascination for Pidge, one of the more mysterious teachers, always working). Lance went on about all the pretty girls he could see and kept complaining about Keith (that boy has an obsession). They finally decided to get started on their homework and put the map away, albeit reluctantly.</p>
<p>“Mischief managed,” said Pidge with a tap of her wand on the page.</p>
<p>“I’m going to the kitchens, I’m starved,” Lance announced, stepping out of the portrait hole, “looking wonderful as usual m’lady.” Lance had a thing for talking to the paintings, according to him, you should be nice to those always helping you out (apparently the other students don't do this enough). “Kind as always Lance,” replied the fat lady.</p>
<p>“Keith’s in the kitchen,” said Pidge absentmindedly. “What?”</p>
<p>“Just pointing out that Lance was going on about him again and when we want to study, he goes off to the place where Keith is.”</p>
<p>“Oh, do you have anything due?” asked Hunk and he and Pidge drifted into a conversation about arithmetic and star charts.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Lance made his way down to the kitchens, tickled the pear and opened the door just a crack. He was eavesdropping on his mortal enemy, it wasn’t creepy! Or weird! He was just bored and wondered if he could get himself any blackmail material. “Yeah, I really missed you guys. Anything new happen over the summer?” came Keith’s voice, slightly muffled by the door.</p>
<p>“Not much master. How are you?” asked a small, distinctly feminine voice.</p>
<p>“Honestly, not great. I feel like if someone mentions Shiro one more time I’m actually going to lose it. These past couple of weeks have been really hard. And that’s saying something cause in a few homes, they thought starvation was a rightful punishment for accidentally making books fly, you ask me, squibs are just jealous. I’ve gone a few days without food before, but it’s nothing compared to now. I feel I can't eat sometimes but I try, for Shiro, y’know” Lance shuddered, what the hell?</p>
<p>“That is awful master, is there anything we can do to help?” Lance could tell Keith was smiling slightly even if he couldn’t see him {that God awful smirk}. “Just you guys being here is enough. I made a promise to Shiro before he left but I kind of don’t want to do it.”</p>
<p>“We think you should master, no matter what it is. If it was important to master Shiro, it must be important to you as well.” Keith laughed a little.</p>
<p>“Yeah, it is. I guess I’ll work on it. Thanks again,” said Keith and Lance could hear that he stood up.</p>
<p>“Whenever master. If you ever want to talk, we’ll be here. Sometimes we have episodes too, some of us got socked for them, then master Dumbledore took us in. See you next time master Keith.”</p>
<p>Lance backed against the wall. Keith walked out and didn’t see him, then disappeared into thin air. He hadn’t expected to hear that! What did he mean by an episode? What did he mean about Shirogane? And where the hell did he go?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Keith walked to Gryffindor tower under his invisibility cloak. He used it much more often. He used to be able to take the stares before, but that was when Shiro was there. And now he wasn’t. He felt as if he was standing on a precipice, all it would take was a single push and he would fall over the edge, down down down. The invisibility cloak hid him and his instability. People always looked in his general direction when he went through doors, it almost made him laugh a few times.</p>
<p>He went up to the dormitory, got Red, and went down to McGonagall’s office. Outside her door, he took off his cloak and shifted his feet before knocking politely. “Come in,” called the professor. He walked in nervously. “Ah Mr. Kogane, to what do I owe this pleasure?”</p>
<p>“I was wondering professor,” he shifted the clutch on his broom, “does your offer from last Christmas still stand? It doesn’t really matter. But Shiro bought me this before he left, and he made me promise to try out for the team. It was the last thing he ever asked of me.” She looked at him sympathetically.</p>
<p>“I was hoping you would ask. Our current seeker is quite good, but he managed to lose us the cup to Ravenclaw by not catching the snitch at the last game. Come Kogane, I booked the pitch so we could practice early. I am sure the team would be happy with the new arrangement; everyone saw you fly. I suspect the other teams will be jealous.”</p>
<p>They walked quickly to the quidditch pitch. “How come you booked the pitch so early? The first game isn’t. until the 2<sup>nd</sup> weekend of October,” said Keith as they neared the pitch. “I always book ahead so we can be ready. We haven’t won the quidditch cup since, in fact, a Kogane was on the team.” Keith looked up sharply.</p>
<p>“Who?”</p>
<p>“Your father, he was a keeper, and no one ever had the chance to score against him. Until your mother came.”</p>
<p>“I thought you said she had talent like you’d never seen until me.”</p>
<p>“True. She didn’t join the team until her 4<sup>th</sup> year, your father had been on it the year before and managed to win us the cup. Your mother was Slytherin’s seeker, she was forced into it by her head of house. We won again because her team had terrible chasers. The next year, she switched places with a chaser and became the first person to score against your father. I don’t think he’d ever been so irate; Gryffindor caught the snitch but Slytherin won 240-230. It’s one of the most legendary games in school history. Your father made himself your mother’s rival.” Keith laughed.</p>
<p>“Well that’s something I didn’t know about them. Were they good students?”</p>
<p>“Your father was a golden boy and your mother a troublemaker. She pulled off many ridiculous stunts, people called her Swiftwind. Though I can’t think for the life of me why. Ah, here we are.” They approached a group of kids, two were 4<sup>th</sup> years and the other 5 were 7<sup>th</sup>. They all clutched brooms and Keith couldn’t help but notice one of the girls had a resemblance to McClain {same <strike>stunning</strike> cheekbones and <strike>soft</strike> darkish skin}</p>
<p>“Good afternoon. Making good use of the pitch I see,” said McGonagall warmly. “Yeah professor, it’s my last match before I hand over being captain,” said a boy with pale greyish skin and a funny hat with goggles.</p>
<p>“I see, well I assume you all know Mr. Kogane and saw him fly.” All of them flinched, except the darker girl. “Yeah totally. It was awesome, are you joining the team?” she asked. Her voice was a distinct mix of half English, half American-Spanish, more so than McClain.</p>
<p>“He is.”</p>
<p>Keith looked down, he thought there was an opening, he didn’t want to be the reason someone got booted off the team.</p>
<p>“It’s been fun. Thace by the way, I hope you can get us the cup,” said Thace, a tall 7<sup>th</sup> year with cool purple hair and distinctively large ears. He waved to the older boys and walked back to the castle.</p>
<p>“I’ll leave you to it,” said McGonagall walking off. Keith kind of didn’t want to be alone with them, the taller, extremely intimidating, older students.</p>
<p>“Cool, new seeker. Love your broom by the way, never seen a firebolt which took the name to heart.” She has to be related to McClain, she talked just as fast as him and her accent was stronger. “I’m Veronica, keeper, no one gets past me. I’ll be captain next game. You probably know my little brother; lanky, loud and sounds like me, he’s in your year. This is Rolo, current captain, and Nyma the other beater. As well as our awesome chasers, Kolivan, Antok and Regris. I think you’ll be a great addition to the team.” He shook hands with them, and they seemed to regain their composure. </p>
<p>Nyma was quite pretty, he could tell when girls were pretty. She had long blond hair, pale skin and quite big navy eyes. Kolivan was really tall and had orange tattoos on his face, he had whitish blue hair with a long plait, which he wore around his neck. Regris had tanned skin, just lighter than Veronica’s. His aquamarine hair was very long and tied in such a way that it looked like a tail. Antok was massive, he had inky navy hair which reached his shoulders and olive skin.</p>
<p>“So, you know how the game works right?” asked Nyma. “Yeah, 3 chasers try to score points with the quaffle, the beaters bang bludgers about to knock other people off their brooms. Then the seeker catches the snitch to end and hopefully win the game.”</p>
<p>“Right, all you need to worry about is the flying gold ball, the snitch. Got it?” A business-like tone came from the Left. “Ronnie is able to survey the entire pitch at a vantage point and she’ll give you the signal for when to get it, we want a good amount of points. We play 6 games a year, twice against every house, there will be a timetable for practice, and I want this team to be the one to make Gryffindor finally take the cup after 14 years of loss. Let’s get you a uniform Kogane,” said Rolo. Keith spent the rest of the day with them.</p>
<p>They were all extremely impressed and said he flew better than most professionals. He managed to give them techniques for speed barrel rolls, where you spin around while flying to pick up speed. They practiced late into the night and went back to their dorms at around 9ish, they had all skipped dinner but didn’t care. It was too much fun. He overheard Nyma say that it had been the best practice in a long time.</p>
<p>He took longer than needed to get his uniform off (two sizes too big and enveloping his hands) so he wouldn’t have to walk back with the others. He tried to put on his invisibility cloak, but Veronica stopped before he got the chance.</p>
<p>“We’re in the same house, walk back with me?” he nodded.</p>
<p>There was an awkward silence while they began the trek back to the castle. Keith walked stiffly, still unsure whether or not this other McClain was worth trusting {Veronica’s her name, right? Yeah, gotta make a point of remembering that one}. Then her voice broke through the silence, “you know my family is really, really not into news, so we barely connect with the world around us. I didn’t hear the legend of the boy who killed until you came last year. I thought it was weird how everyone was, well is, scared of you. I mean, you got rid of Zarkon. If I was you, I’d be like, ‘fuck all y’all, Ima powerful wizard and I got rid of the guy who’s been terrorising you for ages so bow down idiots.” Keith laughed hard; all previous qualms forgotten; that was really funny. He tripped over a tree root.</p>
<p>“I never thought of it that way. Plus, I just don’t like people, so it has its advantages.”</p>
<p>“Do you like me?” It was a simple question with a simple answer.</p>
<p>“Well yeah, I guess. You’re nice and we’ll see a lot of each other at practice. You’re a lot nicer than your brother.”</p>
<p>“I’ve been told, but I’m just as loud, aren’t I?” He nodded carefully. “I didn’t actually think you’d talk to me, other people said you would jinx anyone who came near you.”</p>
<p>“I’ve done that before; you haven’t given me a reason though.”</p>
<p>They chatted all the way back up to the Gryffindor tower. They ambled through the grounds enjoying each other’s company, talking about lessons and quidditch. Keith began to relax more and more until he was happy to talk about almost everything. He really enjoyed this loud girl’s company {not ‘this loud girl’, Veronica, gotta remember}.</p>
<p>They strolled through the old stone corridors, footsteps echoing on the walls, loud in the perpetual silence of the night. Lanterns were already lit, casting a soft, warm glow across the stone and woodwork. The suits of armor littering the castle glinted with sparkling light. The fat lady was snoozing in her frame as they approached. Keith felt fuzzy and warm, as if affected by good butterbeer (Adam’s favourite beverage), he drifted along the final stretch of flagstones smiling genially.</p>
<p>Veronica made as if to wake the fat lady, before she could he grabbed her arm.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Go in first, if I go in with you, you’ll be bombarded with questions about me and neither of us want that.” She simply nodded and smiled. He thought he would quite like to spend more time with Veronica, she didn't judge him and was also much kinder than McClain. He somehow managed to detach the two, to him, Veronica wasn't a McClain but someone who was just nice to him.</p>
<p>Like Katie, {is Katie, no, Pidge, my friend?} After a few minutes of standing in the hall, appreciating the quiet of sleeping Hogwarts, he went in after her.</p>
<p>“Takashi and Matt will always be remembered.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. That was a Change of Pace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Finally, the first quidditch match of the year. Keith learns afterwards that it is 1,000 times better to be feared than liked. People stay away from you when they're scared of you, but when they like you, apparently they crowd. Keith just really didn't like people. And Lance is still thinking about those violets.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The quidditch matches are probably some of my favourite parts of the fic. And I couldn't stop laughing while writing the aftermath, though it is kind of sad in a way, as you might learn if you read chapter 8.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was about a month later when Pidge gained a sudden interest in quidditch. “Wait, wait, wait. You want me to go to the first game of the season, with you. Why?” asked Lance sceptically. “Maybe I think quidditch is a good sport and a good form of entertainment. You’ve never been to a single game and your sister’s on the team,” she said as they made their way to the pitch on the 2<sup>nd</sup> Saturday of October. They got into the Ravenclaw stands, preferable as Ravenclaw wasn’t playing.</p>
<p>“Where’s Hunk?”</p>
<p>“I think he’s in the Hufflepuff stands trying to work up the courage to go talk to that ridiculously nice 3<sup>rd</sup> year. Oh, yep, there he is,” said Pidge pointing to the black and yellow stands.</p>
<p>Sure enough, there was Hunk. He was standing up staring at a girl with ebony skin, short black hair and big gold hoops. At first glance, she might look like a girl who was a bit of a bitch, but she was popular but for the completely opposite reason. Everyone liked her because she had never been mean to anyone in her life, something her and Hunk shared. He’d been talking about her for ages.</p>
<p>“Do you think he’ll go for it?”</p>
<p>“I hope so, I think they’d make a great couple. Ooh look, the game’s starting.” They silenced themselves as the commentator began to speak.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Welcome, welcome. It’s the first game of the year, rooting for Gryffindor. We deserve it.” “Jorden,” McGonagall said, sternly.</p>
<p>“Sorry professor. We have some a couple new flyers on Slytherin, give a shout for Lotor, Axca, Ezor, Zethrid, Narti, Bogh and Branko!” The Slytherins cheered as the team walked out. Apparently, the new flyers were Acxa and Zethrid.</p>
<p>“Good, good. Now give us a cheer for Gryffindor! We have Veronica, ooh she’s a catch.”</p>
<p>“What did I say?” asked McGonagall. Lance choked back a laugh, he’d never seen someone hit on his sister firsthand.</p>
<p>“Sorry again professor, I only speak the truth. And we have Rolo, Nyma, Kolivan, Antok, Regris and a new seeker apparently, Keith.” The crowd went deadly silent as the Gryffindor team walked on with Keith trailing behind them. Lance gaped in shock, since when had Keith made the team? He looked at Pidge only to see her smirking at him, did she know?</p>
<p>Madam hooch walked out as the two teams walked across the field. “Right, I want a nice clean game, captains, shake.” Rolo and Branko shook hands but it looked more like Branko was trying to crush Rolo’s. They mounted their brooms. She blew the whistle and dirt flew in all directions as they kicked off.</p>
<p>Veronica went straight over to the hoops and for some reason Keith followed her. The balls were released, and the game began. Annoyingly Slytherin got the quaffle but Lance knew of his sister’s superior skills. As they drew closer, Keith flew right between them, distracting two of the chasers. Lance noticed it was the galra girl who had the quaffle, she was one of the new players. He saw his sister flinch as the girl took aim. She aimed for the right hoop then threw it through the left.</p>
<p>“Oof, that’s 10 points to Slytherin, come on Veronica, where's that signature fighting spirit! Sorry professor.” announced Lee, McGonagall shaking her head. His sister never failed to block, well most of the time. Slytherin scored twice more and Lance groaned. Out of nowhere, Keith flew over to her and whispered something. She smiled and nodded; she clearly wasn’t scared of him. The next time the chasers flew over, Keith was flying directly underneath them. Veronica was hovering in the middle. The girl took aim and Keith stuck his arm to the right. Veronica flew up as the girl threw it right. Then she went down, caught the ball, threw it out, it went over to Keith, who hit it with his broom, then went all the way across the pitch and into Regris’s waiting hands.</p>
<p>He scored. The entire pitch was silent.</p>
<p>“And Keith hits the quaffle with his broom, Regris catches, he aims, he scores, quaffle straight through the hoop. 10 points to Gryffindor! Look at that technique,” shouted Lee. The red and gold stands began to cheer, a sea of rippling regal reds and maroons, gold accents glancing light across the pitch in the cold autumn sun.</p>
<p>It turned out to be a very good game. Keith apparently had a technique where he would do some crazy stunts and the other seeker would attempt to copy. They were at 70-30 when Veronica did some kind of weird signal to Keith. He went to the middle of the pitch and just floated there. The Slytherin captain apparently had enough of the constant tease that was Keith Kogane as he flew over to the next bludger and hit it with enough force to knock Keith out from behind, flying into the back of his head. Just before it hit, he simply dropped out of the air, he gained flight just before he hit the ground and hurtled after some invisible force. Everyone was shocked at how freaking unfairly cool that trick was.</p>
<p>“And I think the Gryffindor seeker’s seen the snitch,” said Lee observantly.</p>
<p>The Slytherin seeker started to go after him, but she couldn’t match his speed. He was on a firebolt but even on a nimbus he would be the faster one, and that was saying something. With the keeper distracted, Antok managed to score again but everyone’s eyes were on the two flyers. They went so high it looked like they were little dots in the sky. Then they started hurtling towards the ground. Lance saw a speck of gold in his peripheral vision. “Looks like they’re going to crash into the stands.”</p>
<p>“Brace yourself!” shouted Pidge as Lance covered his eyes. Then everyone was quiet again, he looked up to see Keith’s outstretched hand directly in front of him. Two hummingbird-like wings fluttered out from between his fingers. Cold violet eyes reflecting Lance’s face, which made them super <strike>distracting</strike> annoying. Somehow he was brought back home to his windowsill and those violets. His hair had been ruined by the gust of wind that Keith had brought with him, but in the moment that didn't matter. The hand outstretched in his face didn't matter. The hummingbird wings’ constant droning didn't matter. Time had frozen, everything perfectly still. It had been over a year since Lance had been this close to Keith, he had kind of forgotten how good looking he was up close. No, don’t think like that, he’s your rival.</p>
<p>“He caught the snitch! Gryffindor beats Slytherin at a score of 230-30. Incredible!” Keith flew down to his team. The sound from the stands was deafening. God! Was there anything Keith was bad at?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Keith put the snitch back in its case and he walked back into the Gryffindor changing room. “Whoo! Nice one Keith! I think this is going to be the year where we win,” said Veronica high fiving him.</p>
<p>“Yeah, totally a misunderstanding. You’re a good guy Keith,” said Rolo with a smile.</p>
<p>“There’s not going to be a party, right?” asked Keith.</p>
<p>“Hell yeah there’s gonna be a party. This is our first win in ages, I don’t think we’ve won since Veronica took over as keeper, granted that our seeker wasn’t the best,” said Nyma. Keith looked down, he still wasn’t happy about Thace getting booted off the team and he really didn’t want the chasers to hold it against him. They were giant 7<sup>th</sup> years and he was still a 2<sup>nd</sup>, though he was powerful he hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone.</p>
<p>True to Nyma’s words, there was a party in the Gryffindor common room. He stayed in his room the entire time. He was reading a defence against the dark arts book when someone walked in. It wasn’t a 2<sup>nd</sup> year, it was Kolivan. Keith put his book away and looked at the 7<sup>th</sup> year quizzically. He wasn’t as large as Antok but was easily a leader and easily instilled fear into the hearts of younger years, annoyingly, including Keith.</p>
<p>“Why aren’t you downstairs?” he asked leaning on the doorframe. “I’m not a people person, pretty sure I would chase off most of them anyway,” he said simply, grateful that his voice hadn’t risen a few notches.</p>
<p>“You are the reason we have won, I have overheard a few saying they wished to congratulate your skill. It is rather impressive, are you entirely sure?” Keith nodded. Kolivan simply turned while leaning on the door frame and practically waltzed down the stairs, was there alcohol? He didn’t want to know. Then as Kolivan disappeared, McClain came into view. He went back to his book ignoring the boy. He heard him scoff and looked up.</p>
<p>“Of course, you’re up here, that party is like, all about you and you won’t even grace them with your presence, how rude.” Geeze! “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I don’t like people, I just don’t. It would be pretty annoying if I didn’t know how to cast a simple silencing spell, I can’t hear anything beyond the dormitory.”</p>
<p>“That just makes you sound like a worse person than you probably already are.”</p>
<p>“You know your sister is a lot nicer and accepting than you, maybe there’s a reason she’s got so many friends,” he said a little viciously. The comment hit home.</p>
<p>“What! You know my sister? Well, she is on the team... what’s that supposed to mean anyway?” It sounded like McClain was used to this, he felt a little bad.</p>
<p>“Just that she’s accepting and knows how to simply read a room.” Keith decided to stop talking. McClain ranted at him for a while then just fell silent. Keith didn’t mean to hurt him; he had just wanted him to shut up so he could read. He was <em>definitely</em> <span class="u">not</span> a people person</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“Dios, Keith is the worst,” Lance complained at breakfast. His friends rolled their eyes simultaneously. “Yeah, we know, what happened this time?” asked Hunk in a very bored voice.</p>
<p>“Saw him last night, he wasn’t at the party at all. Then after asking why, he compared me to my sister and said maybe there was a reason why she has so many friends.”</p>
<p>“Honestly, he’s not that wrong,” said Pidge.</p>
<p>“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side!” he almost shouted.</p>
<p>“You are kind of quick to assume. But I don’t see you talking or trying to be nice to everyone so there’s that.”</p>
<p>“She’s just like me. We both talk too much. I tried to be friends with him, and he blew me off. I don’t like him cause he’s just an asshole, I would try if he would.”</p>
<p>“Topic change!” yelled Hunk startling a few people sitting next to them. He and Hunk chatted about something or other when Pidge suddenly burst out laughing at the school paper. She managed to calm herself a little, then looked down the table and started full on wheezing like she was having an asthma attack.</p>
<p>“Are you ok?” asked Lance when she finally steadied her breathing. “Yeah, fine, too funny. Read this,” she said breathlessly and thrust the paper at him. Before looking at it, he took in his surroundings and realised that everyone was staring at Keith. Usually people tried not to, but these stares weren’t out of fear, he couldn’t really place it, but it looked positive. He decided to read the paper. He stared at it in horror, the front page was an article about Keith. It read:</p>
<p>
  <em>Keith Kogane, the boy who killed.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We all lived in fear of him but should we. He’s an incredible seeker and managed to rid us off the dark lord. That should be praised, not feared. He has immense magical talent; he could be the one who finally rids us of the Galra. He already can cast nonverbal spells and managed to get Gryffindor a 200-point lead in the quidditch cup.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Besides, he’s got very pretty eyes.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He looked up at Pidge. She smiled. “He’s got very pretty eyes, I’m dead.”</p>
<p>“Hey, I wanna see,” Hunk said, snatching the paper. He scanned it quickly and sniggered. “That’s pretty funny. Wait look, he has no idea.”</p>
<p>They all looked at Keith who was sitting near the middle of the table, kind of close to the five scary cool 7<sup>th</sup> year boys. They rarely looked anything other than stoic, but they all wore matching amused expressions aimed at Keith. He was just eating cereal, completely unaware of the new looks of admiration. Lance decided he didn’t like this at all.</p>
<p>Veronica whispered something then leaned behind her and fist pumped Allura. Wait, since when was she friends with the princess? He shouldn’t think about that. The boy with the orange facial tattoos passed him a paper. Keith glared at him then read it. His eyes widened as he read. He looked up and around him, he looked scared almost. Kind of funny. Until a lot of girls, and a few boys, walked over and started flirting with him! He looked even more scared, then he stood and simply walked out. A few people started to follow him.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the next week, people would not stop following and trying to flirt with Keith. It would have been kind of funny if it hadn’t annoyed Lance to his very core. Keith would actually run down the halls, maybe it had become some kind of game, to see if someone could get past his walls.</p>
<p>He was talking to his sister after class one day when Keith ran past them. She grabbed his arm and pulled him behind her as a group of people walked past them. “Thanks Ronnie,” he said. “Don’t mention it, next time try jinxing them.”</p>
<p>“That could get me in trouble.”</p>
<p>“Ha, please. I bet people would back off then.”</p>
<p>“Good idea, see you at practice,” he walked off and didn’t seem to notice Lance at all.</p>
<p>“Hasta luego.” She looked back at him and almost laughed. "Qué?” she asked innocently once he was out of earshot</p>
<p>“Um, since when does Keith call you Ronnie? And why are you helping him?” he asked incredulously.</p>
<p>“Because no one else is, well, the team a little. He’s got, like, massive trust issues. I’m nice because I can be, and I can tell he appreciates it.” She smiled at him and walked over to her approaching group of friends. He wasn’t sure what to think, Keith was like friends with his sister and didn’t even notice he was there! How rude. He shrugged it off and went to find his friends. </p>
<p>“Hey, what’s up?” asked Pidge when Lance found her and Hunk in the Gryffindor common room. “Apparently Keith calls my sister Ronnie and when they talked earlier, he pretended I didn’t exist!” He slumped on the couch next to her.</p>
<p>“So, which is worse, the fact that Keith is nice to your sister or that he didn’t even see you?” asked Hunk. That shut him up. Out of nowhere Keith burst through the portrait hole, he made a beeline for the second-year dormitory when a gaggle of girls came in after him. He was about to go up the stairs when the orange tattooed 7<sup>th</sup> year stopped him.</p>
<p>“Kolivan,” said Keith warningly. He smiled, “Address your fans.” Keith looked a little scared then the boy finally removed his arm. He rushed up the stairs and the girls looked disappointed. Lance smoothed back his hair and stood to walk over.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t,” said Hunk. Lance rolled his eyes and walked over anyway. He used some of his best lines, the ones about space, the alphabet, all wasted. I mean who can resist his famous, 'are you from outer space? Because your body is out of this world!' But the girls simply ignored him, it hurt to say the least. He felt a rush of air on his left that displaced his carefully styled hair, then the portrait hole opened and closed. Disappointed, the group of girls left. He went back and sat with his friends.</p>
<p>“Don’t feel bad, you’re only a second year. I bet you’ll get some girls next year,” said Hunk warmly. He smiled at his best friend.</p>
<p>“Doubtful,” said Pidge and Lance punched her playfully on the shoulder, “But I can’t help but feel bad for the guy.”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“Because everyone, or mostly everyone, has gone from fear to chasing him around enamoured. It’s a drastic change and probably pretty weird.”</p>
<p>Pidge went back to her dorm to hang out with another friend, or something, so Lance and Hunk went to hang out in the dorm bedroom. Keith wasn’t in there, where did he go? Well at least he wasn’t there. He let Hunk talk about his crush for ages as they played exploding snap.</p>
<p>Two or so hours later, Keith rushed through the door and flinched when he saw them. “Sorry, is it ok if I stay here? I know noise cancelling charms,” he said breathlessly. Lance half wanted to turn him down just because he asked. “Yeah sure, I mean it’s your dorm,” said Hunk. He was still scared and wary of Keith, most people were. He nodded, grabbed 3 books and somehow, climbed his way to sit on top of his bed. Actually, on top of the four-poster. He muttered something and waved his wand.</p>
<p>“Never knew he was such a bookworm,” said Hunk watching the boy curiously.</p>
<p>“He’s always reading and it’s always advanced.”</p>
<p>“How do you know?”</p>
<p>“It’s not like I watch him or anything!” shouted Lance indignantly, Keith didn’t even look up. Lance continued, in a rasp a little below an inside voice. “He’s in here a lot and always reading, I like never see him do anything else.” Hunk nodded.</p>
<p>They lapsed back into the conversation, resuming their game but Lance couldn’t help but wonder what life was like for Keith. Did he really never have anything better to do than read? Hunk slammed down a card and Lance was pulled out of his thoughts. A small explosion shook the mattress. “Dude! C’mon, you missed an obvious snap, I know because you’re flashing your cards at me. What’s up?”</p>
<p>“Nothing man, let's just play.” The game went on. A heated battle between comrades with many side glances at Keith. The cards exploded just as Lance was about to snap a pair causing him to curse. Hunk let out a belly laugh.</p>
<p>“Aww so close, so close, but I am the undisputed champion!” His mocking tone rang out. Lance huffed, but still smiled.</p>
<p>Then his thoughts were brought back to Keith. His brow ruffled and he looked over at the raven-haired, stoic, solitary boy and wondered if he had ever seen him smile. He shook his head.</p>
<p>Back to the game. He picked up the cards and shuffled with expert skill, something he picked up from his father, an exploding snap God. Dishing out the cards he chucked one down onto the bed and the game began once more. They were close contenders, Pidge preferred chess to gobstones or exploding snap so Hunk and Lance only really got the chance to play when she ran off to do research about something or other. However, with a bit of convincing she would still play with them (however, often reluctantly and often grudgingly).</p>
<p>Lance looked over at Keith again, head deep in a book, dark hair hiding his face from view. Hands gripping the sides of the pages, curling over the cover. Even though Lance couldn’t see his face, he’d seen him read so many times before that he could imagine the look of concentration on his face when reading about advanced magic. The look of joy at some muggle story. The furrowed brow and curled body when reading about these things called ‘cryptids’ or reviewing one of those conspiracy theories (things Lance did not care for).</p>
<p>Back to the game. He surveyed his cards and placed one down, met with a short laugh from Hunk as he snapped a pair. Lance put down another card as his mind drifted to Keith once more.</p>
<p>The boy was still on the top of his bed and Lance could clearly see his relaxed form, a small smile lighting up his face.</p>
<p>The game, dammit! Another card was placed, Lance caught a snap, adding to the pile next to him. Hunk was smiling and happy to score a snap of his own. Another card.</p>
<p>Eyes floating back to Keith. Violet eyes meeting his own, peering over the edge of the book. Hand caught mid-way, turning a page. Staring a beat too long. Looking away.</p>
<p>Another card. Another snap, courtesy of Hunk, his pile now twice the size of Lance’s. A smirk directed at Lance. Another explosion, throwing cards into the air. The two scrambled off the bed to collect the cards.</p>
<p>“Man you are not doing well today! Call it a day?”</p>
<p>“Absolutely not, the sharpshooter can still get his well-deserved win!”</p>
<p>“Alright, whatever you say, I’m still the King of exploding snap.” Hunk re-asserted himself on the bed. Lance leapt onto the soft mattress ceremonially. Master shuffling, a dealing of cards, Hunk slid a card from his hand onto the bedspread. The game commenced once more.</p>
<p>Halfway through, shaken by the previous stare from the violet eyes, Lance decided to chance another glance over at Keith. He had wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, making him look <strike>adorably</strike> cozy. He had moved on from 5th year charms to some muggle book about aliens or something {whatever you do, Lance, don't think about talking to him about space and supernovae and galaxies and planets and aliens, or the glowing stars littering your ceiling. DO NOT}. A cat sat comfortably in his lap, a streak of blue fur across its back.</p>
<p>Another snap, another card, another card, another snap.</p>
<p>Lance wondered if Keith had ever played exploding snap before, Hunk gave him a knowing smirk. Lance swears he can read his mind sometimes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At some point Lance and Hunk finished their game. Hunk went back down to his dorm,</p>
<p>Lance lay in bed, staring at the ceiling wishing for his glowing stars (however childish) and his beautiful violets that he so-often thought about. He fell to sleep, dreaming of space and violets and a pretty boy with a violet stare.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks again for reading. I didn't say in the other two chapters, but I would love feedback or comments in general, positive or negative.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A Team with Him?!!!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Keith manages to get his first ever friend. She's very similar to him and they do a lot of good work together. Lance tries out for the team and lives up to his title as the sharpshooter, for once.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I always thought that the Pidge and Keith friendship was adorable, added to the fact they're both obviously autistic. Lance's tryouts are in my opinion awesome as I got to write a lot of Veronica, and I love her.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Pidge took a deep breath; she was really doing this. She pushed open the door to the library and found Keith reading in a window, against one. She walked over and stood directly in front of him, he didn’t even look up. A few people at the tables were making eyes at him and gave her the evil eye. She knew he couldn’t hear her. “Magnitnoralem,” she said and flicked her wrist at him, the counter to his silence spell. He finally looked up and proceeded to glare at her. “What?”</p>
<p>“Just want to talk, reasonably.” She sat on the windowsill bench next to him and cast muffliato. He looked sort of surprised, but not at the same time.</p>
<p>“So, what do you want to talk about?” he asked, closing his book.</p>
<p>“First kind of wondering why you’re sitting in a library with a silence spell,” he raised his eyebrows, “ok, stupid question. I wanted to say that… I’m sorry.” That seemed to take him by surprise.</p>
<p>“For what?”</p>
<p>“For not seeing if you were ok, for being irrationally scared of you. Can we be friends?” He looked down.</p>
<p>“I’ve never had a friend before.”</p>
<p>“What about Veronica?”</p>
<p>“She’s a nice teammate, we chat sometimes, we’re just friendly acquaintances.”</p>
<p>“So, I’ll be your first friend,” she said brightly. “First things first,” she leaned down and whispered even though no one could hear them, “you know they’re not dead right.” He sat up straight, eyes widened.</p>
<p>“You know they’re out there too?” his tone lifted, he sounded excited.</p>
<p>“Of course, they’re not gone. There’s no way Matt would leave me, and Shiro would never leave you and Adam. We’re going to figure this out.” They nodded then he looked at her funny.</p>
<p>“What?” Before she could stop him, he waved his wand and said, “oculus reparo.” Her glasses were instantly fixed.</p>
<p>“Why did you,” she stopped short as words formed on her glasses. It read:</p>
<p>
  <em>Still here. Reveal wand</em>
</p>
<p>It was Matt’s handwriting. She took off the glasses and showed Keith. “Do you have Shiro’s wand on you?” “I take it everywhere.”</p>
<p>“Good, I have my dad’s and Matt’s, get it out.” He obliged as she got the two out of her inside pocket. He passed her the wand. She held them up, “specialis revelio.” Nothing seemed to happen, until a note formed around Matt’s wand. She ripped it off and read it out.</p>
<p>“We’re all alive Pidge, I knew you would figure it out. You know how I hate having wonky glasses. We’ve been captured by the galra, they faked our deaths. Something’s gonna happen to Shiro, I think they’re going to use galra over us or brand us with the mark. You probably don’t know what that means, we’re not safe, we could die at any point. But I promise you Katie, we’ll all meet again. If I know Shiro, and I do, he’ll get us out.” They were silent for a bit. She wouldn't have figured it out without Keith, she felt immensely grateful. </p>
<p>“Give me the wands,” she handed them over and he looked at the bottoms, “this is Shiro’s wand and your dad’s, but not Matt’s.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean.”</p>
<p>“They each put a coloured dot at the bottom, so they knew if it was really their wands or not. Something they started in auror training, they kept it up after that, out of habit.” He turned the bottom of wands to her and she saw that her father’s had a yellow dot on the bottom and Shiro’s had a green, but there wasn’t anything on her brother’s.</p>
<p>“So, there’s a chance my brother has already escaped and is in hiding?” he nodded, “we’re really doing this, aren’t we?” They were going to get her family back.</p>
<p>“Pidge!” someone shouted and was shushed by the librarian. They looked up to see Lance and Hunk in the doorway of the library. Pidge rolled her eyes and got out a muggle notebook. “Here, just tap your wand to this book and say your favourite colour, I already charmed it.” He shrugged and did what she said.</p>
<p>“Good, the pages marked with red and green are our chat. The ones with red, yellow, green and blue are the whole chat. The book doesn’t run out of pages, just write in it and we’ll write back, long distance communication.” She stood and muttered the reverse to muffliato.</p>
<p>“Pidge,” she looked back at Keith, “I’m glad you’re my friend.” She smiled at him and walked over to her other friends.</p>
<p>“Pidgey, why were you cavorting with the enemy?” asked Lance as they walked to the kitchens.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t cavorting! I was being friendly.”</p>
<p>“With the enemy. Why?”</p>
<p>“That is for me to know and you to maybe find out. I added him to the group chat.”</p>
<p>“You did what?” Lance spluttered, “he’ll see our old conversations!”</p>
<p>“I made a new one, calm down drama queen. It’s for us four and his ink is red, he isn’t on our old chat.” They kept arguing all the way to the kitchens.</p>
<p>“Guys, shut it. We’re here for food, do not disgrace the holiness of food,” said Hunk finally breaking it up. they rolled their eyes, “fine.”</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Lance couldn’t be more excited. The captain of the Gryffindor team said that a spot opened up on the team, tryouts were going to take place on Saturday. He grabbed his broom and raced down to the quidditch pitch. There was quite a large crowd, some weren’t even from Gryffindor, he pushed to the front and saw the team. Ugh, Keith, he forgot Keith was on the team.</p>
<p>“Hey, nice to see so many turned up. The last match was my last game. I’m stepping down. Without further ado, I present your new captain, Veronica,” said the captain. She waved and the crowd cheered. “I know you’ll do us proud; I’m expecting our replacement to help us bring Gryffindor to glory.” He bowed to the crowd and walked off.</p>
<p>“Alright, nice to see so many faces. First things first, I’m Veronica keeper and captain. This is Kolivan, Antok and Regris, our chasers, Nyma remaining beater and of course Keith our awesome seeker. And if you please, if you aren’t from Gryffindor, find a seat in the stands or go back to the castle. Actual Gryffindors, follow me.” A few people walked off and the two taller chasers made sure only Gryffindors went onto the pitch.</p>
<p>“Good, good. First, I’m going to see if anyone is a better chaser than our current ones, though I seriously doubt it. Everyone who wants to try for beater, wait in the stands. Anyone with hopes for seeker or keeper, dream on.”</p>
<p>Lance sniggered; his sister was beyond nice but beyond savage when it came down to it. He went up into the stands with a few others, not many actually wanted to be beaters apparently. Many people tried out for chaser, but no one was better than Kolivan, Antok and Regris. They all flew like a well-oiled machine, the whole team did. It made Lance nervous, even if he was good enough to be a beater, would he work well with the team? Or even the other beater? Who were they anyway? He hadn’t actually been paying attention to his sister, he was busy giving Keith the evil eye.</p>
<p>“Anyone else for chasers?” his sister’s voice rang out across the stadium. Two boys and a girl were left. She made them attempt to fly against the current chasers without the bludgers. They didn’t do well at all. Pshh, amateurs.</p>
<p>“Alright, beaters, get down here!” she called. He and the 8 others flew down from the stands. “Cool, you’ll go two at a time. The chasers will fly across the field and attempt to score, we’re releasing the bludgers and you’ll use them to stop them, understood?” They nodded. Four of them were 2<sup>nd</sup> years and the others were older. The older ones went first and failed miserably. “Let’s do this Ryan,” said James as his sister called them up. They also did badly, and Lance thought James would throw a temper tantrum. Veronica sighed; he knew she didn’t want to look biased.</p>
<p>“Ok, last two. People watching, I hope for everyone’s sake Rizavi or McClain can do this.” James and Ryan flew down and passed the bats to him and Nadia. Veronica was floating by the rings as he and Nadia faced the chasers. Keith, beater and many others were in the stands. She blew the whistle and they rose. Nadia stayed centred while he flew off after a bludger. Just as Regris neared the hoops, he swung the bat and hit the bludger as hard as he could. It hit Regris in the side and must have winded him as he fell off his broom.</p>
<p>Keith ran and jumped out of the stands.  He flew as fast as he did after the snitch. He took his hands off the broom and hooked his arms under Regris’s and flew up without holding the broom. He streaked across the pitch then demounted still holding the older boy.</p>
<p>Whoa.</p>
<p>He called something to Veronica and Antok came over. He picked up Regris and started walking to the hospital wing.</p>
<p>“Did you see that?” his head whipped up and he looked at his sister, “that’s what I’m talking about. Did you see his precision? That’s exactly that I want. McClain.” she beckoned him, and he flew over to her. “Welcome to the team.” He smiled widely. They flew off to the changing rooms and got Lance a uniform (too big until it went to get sized).</p>
<p>“Ok, you saw Regris and Antok, meet the rest of the team. Keith, Kolivan, Nyma." He shook hands with Kolivan then proceeded to internally gawk at Nyma. She was gorgeous.</p>
<p>“I think it’s going to be fun working with you Lance,” she said sweetly.</p>
<p>“Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” he said in his most flirtatious voice. She simply smiled at him; it was actually genuine.</p>
<p>“Hey,” he whipped his head around to Keith looking a little sheepish, “welcome to the team. I hope we work well together.”</p>
<p>“Focus on the snitch, I’ll focus on the bludgers.” His eyes flashed angrily then calmed.</p>
<p>“So, I can trust you to watch my back?”</p>
<p>“If we weren’t on the same team, no.” What? He didn’t have to be nice to the guy just because they were on the same team.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>A little while later, Keith was back in his room writing furiously to his new friend. “I mean seriously, why are you friends with the guy? He’s such a prick, I welcome him to the team, and he responds with I’m only going to watch your back because we’re on the same team. Who does that?”</p>
<p>“Lance apparently,” responded the glistening dark green ink, “You’ve been rude to him for a while and he took an opportunity to do it back.”</p>
<p>“Only because he did it in the first place, and thanks for reminding me of his name.”</p>
<p>“You didn’t know his name?”</p>
<p>“I forgot it.”</p>
<p>“That could be part of the problem. I’m friends with him because he’s actually a really nice guy, fiercely protective and generally fun. His drama does get annoying though. Hold on, he’s telling us proudly of his and I quote, ‘sick burn’.”</p>
<p>“Really?”</p>
<p>“Yep, that’s Lance. Want me to tell him you didn’t remember his name until I mentioned it?”</p>
<p>“No, don’t have the heart.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t credit you to be a sweet person.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t credit you to be an evil gremlin.”</p>
<p>“Awe, thank you kindly.” Keith smiled; it was really nice to have a friend. He had someone who he could talk to and talk back, unlike Kosmo who seemed to sometimes understand him but couldn't talk back.  “I need to go; Lance won’t stop saying I’m a traitor. And hang out later?”</p>
<p>“Sure, we can go over some conspiracies I have. Be in the Ravenclaw common room at one tonight.”</p>
<p>“Cool, c u then.”</p>
<p>“?” The green ink didn’t appear so he assumed she must have properly joined her friends. He got out some of his saved cryptids and conspiracy papers which had galra leads, they were going to find their brothers, and no one could stop them.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Lance and his friends were in the courtyard in front of the castle. Every Saturday at midday, the princess and her friends would practice spells which looked like fireworks. Lance persuaded them to come, he wanted to see the cool displays of magic, he was most definitely not looking to see if anyone was in his league. Eyes glittering, they watched the cool display.</p>
<p>His eyes were mostly on the stunning girl at the helm though. Her beautiful silvery hair blew in the wind. Her gorgeous turquoise eyes shone with excitement. He knew there was no way she was in his league, but many dreamed of the silver haired princess. Someone literally snapped him out of his thoughts, they snapped their fingers right next to his ear. “Hey!”</p>
<p>“Dreaming about Allura, resident golden girl and actual princess,” said Pidge mockingly.</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Sure, sure. She is amazing but seriously, no one has a chance with her, nada nada limonada.”</p>
<p>“Come on, surely someone has a chance. I mean, obviously I want one. Also, why use that phrase?”</p>
<p>“Because it’s funny, doesn't make much sense, but still funny. Your sister’s coming over, maybe she can introduce us.” Sure enough, Veronica was heading over from the cluster of 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> years.</p>
<p>“Hey, is my baby bro staring at the princess again? Why don’t you go over and say hi?” she asked.</p>
<p>“We were hoping you could introduce us,” said Pidge.</p>
<p>“Why? You can,” she stopped. Pidge was giving her a cold hard stare for some reason.</p>
<p>She shrugged and walked back over to the princess. She started talking to her, but it wasn’t loud enough to hear. Allura nodded then Veronica squeaked, it was really loud, and high pitched, and everyone heard. Lance sniggered, he could guess why she did that, but he couldn’t foresee what came next.</p>
<p>Allura’s gaze hardened as she turned her head to face the great doors. Out stepped five Slytherins, it was the five who he’d seen outside the library many months before, he now knew them differently. The boy at the front was known as The Prince as Allura The Princess. They weren’t in any kind of relationship, hell no. They were school wide known enemies. He was a golden boy, almost captain of the Slytherin team. Just like Allura, they were kind of the same yet completely different. Behind him walked four girls, for some reason unknown to him, they were called his generals. Most-likely because they were his best friends and confidants.</p>
<p>“Good afternoon your majesty,” he said with a mocking bow. “Don’t call me that Lotor, you will never be royalty,” she said with much venom. It made Lance wonder if the whole school would know one day that he and Keith were mortal enemies too.</p>
<p>“Anything your highness. Do not mock my crown, I am as much a prince as you a princess. Though your colours are a little drab. How about a nice change of pace?” He flicked his wand out and muttered a spell to change the flying blue eagle into a green and silver snake.</p>
<p>His generals cheered behind him. Lance laughed internally as the name he came up for them popped into his head. Lotor and his lesbians, honest to God, some of his best material. His sister had a massive crush on one, but she would never tell him which one. That was the reason she squeaked.</p>
<p>Allura’s eyes flashed angrily and she turned his light snake into a burst of beautiful turquoise sparks. “Oh, it’s on Princess,” he called mischievously. Both groups joined in, creating many strange and wondrous spectacles of light. Those in the grounds watched on as snakes warped into birds into phoenixes into dragons. They spread across the sky in a plethora of colours, it was beautiful.</p>
<p>“This was definitely worth it, good call Lance,” said Pidge as she marvelled at the light show. Finally, McGonagall showed and started breaking up the impromptu magic showdown as a few of the students decided to get physical.</p>
<p>“Tell me the truth, who started this fight? Or I will take away this spell showing off privilege.” Everyone went silent, no one wanted to rat out the Prince and Princess. Ok stop calling them that, it makes it sound like they’re together.</p>
<p>“It was Lotor,” piped up a male 4<sup>th</sup> year.</p>
<p>“No, it was Allura,” said Zethrid aggressively.</p>
<p>“It was both of them,” his sister said. Everyone glared at her then nodded, except Lotor’s lesbians. She shrunk under their gaze.</p>
<p>“Where are they then?” asked McGonagall, “though I still doubt two of the best students in school would do something like this.” Everyone looked around them and saw that Lotor and Allura were missing. Did they apparate when McGonagall showed up? No that wasn’t possible in Hogwarts. Where did they go? “Someone better own up to this or it’s detention for you all.” Well that went south fast.</p>
<p>“It was actually her, she’s galra,” shouted another boy pointing at Acxa. Before McGonagall could say anything, his sister jumped in with venom dripping in her voice.</p>
<p>“Remember what Dumbledore said about demonising galra students. Anyone could be galra for all we know but it’s not fair to try and blame someone for the scars they bare.” The four girls visibly gasped and Narti nudged Acxa. She swatted her away and looked down.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Ms. McClain, well said. Tell Mr. Dayak and Ms. Altea to meet me in my office after dinner.”</p>
<p>“That sounds like a death wish professor,” said Ezor.</p>
<p>“I am well aware. You may continue if there will be no more fighting.” She walked off and everyone glared at each other. Lotor’s lesbians tipped their heads back and strutted off in a perfect formation, they always did that but normally with Lotor at the helm, did they practice?</p>
<p>“Where do you think they went?” asked Hunk. “Dunno, how did they even disappear?” asked Lance as they walked through the hall.</p>
<p>“Maybe they planned it,” said Pidge in a dumb voice.</p>
<p>“Why would they do that?”</p>
<p>“It’s a possibility.” She shrugged. Lance heard a very quiet laugh, he turned to see a wisp of white hair pass around a corner. Allura? Lotor also had long white hair. Ha! Maybe that’s why they hated each other so much.</p>
<p>He went to the corner and looked down the hall, he didn’t see anyone. But he heard the same laugh, maybe he was imagining things, till Pidge popped up behind him and asked, “what’s so funny?”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t the one laughing.”</p>
<p>“Maybe it was peeves.”</p>
<p>“I saw white hair go around the corner, maybe it was Allura or Lotor.”</p>
<p>“This has gotten boring, let’s go to the common room.”</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>They went back to the common room and studied for their upcoming potions test. Hunk and Lance both hated professor Iverson but Pidge didn’t mind him because she was naturally the top of the class, tied with Keith annoyingly.</p>
<p>Studying was boring and Pidge went back to her dormitory early, something about early mornings and cramming for a test, astronomy maybe? Hunk stayed a lot longer but went back to his at around 10. Lance went up to his own dorm and found everyone in their room, granted that it was pretty late.</p>
<p>James and Ryan were playing a game, truth or dare or something. Rax was writing something and Keith, he was lying on his bed reading, again. How many books did the guy have? It wasn’t his usual reading material; it was some kind of history book and it looked old.</p>
<p>He wrote to his friends and Pidge told them she was going to bed early; it was a little out of character for her, but Lance thought nothing of it. He and Hunk talked on their separate chat and he noticed the newest addition to the back of the book, the chat for four. He glared at Keith, but the small mulleted emo didn’t seem to notice him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At almost one in the morning, Lance still wasn’t asleep, and neither was Keith. Everyone else was though.</p>
<p>Keith sat up and reached for a small book, he wrote in it and did something Lance had never ever seen him do. He smiled; it was small, small and bright. Joy lit up his features, the usually moody face of Keith Kogane became something of wonder. His eyebrows were unclenched, he looked… there's no other word for it, happy. Something charming and beautiful that he never thought he would see. He really was <strike>handsome</strike> something else when he smiled. Violet eyes shining, like the moon hitting the ocean. His fringe almost seemed to lift with the force of his smile, granting Lance a closer look at the joyous face, eyes becoming more visible {Wait, is that eyeliner? He looks <strike>good</strike> stupid}.</p>
<p>Don’t think about that. God! It was such an annoying expression. Keith is so annoying.</p>
<p>“Kosmo,” Keith whispered. There was a bright flash of blue light and Keith’s cat was in his lap. He got out from underneath his covers and Lance saw that he was fully clothed. There was another flash of blue light and suddenly Keith was gone. He sat up surprised, what the hell? The cat could not only teleport itself but could also teleport people? Wow.</p>
<p>He noticed the small notebook on Keith’s table, he could recognise it anywhere, he had one exactly the same. Should he? No, yes? It’s an invasion of privacy. Maybe there was blackmail material, no he can’t do that to Pidge. Wait, Pidge is the only one Keith talks to, he was just writing in his notebook and Pidge said she was having an early night. What was going on? He wrote in their normal chat, “Pidge? Are you up?”</p>
<p> “Nope, shut up,” the dark green ink responded. He had to ask.</p>
<p>“Are you with Keith?” There was no telling where he was, this was weird.</p>
<p>“No! I’m trying to sleep, you should too or all that studying will go to waste, gnight!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Once again, thanks for reading. Leave a comment if you see areas for me to improve. Sidenote, ma sweet boys are perfect for each other and this slow burn might kill me, but they will end up together in the end, they always do.</p>
<p>(Anyone suspicious of our princess?)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A Past Most Foul</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Essentially, Pidge and Keith being awesome friends yet who always have to walk on eggshells. They discover something about Zarkon's dark past, which makes him all the more evil.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just love their friendship, it's so cute. There is relation-shiping and friend-shiping. I heavily friendship them</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At precisely 00:58am, Pidge quietly made her way down from the 2<sup>nd</sup> year Ravenclaw dormitory to the common room. Truth be told, she liked it better than Gryffindor’s but still wished to see Slytherin’s as it was green (one of her favourite colours, if not her favourite).</p>
<p>She leaned on the arm one of the many comfy armchairs littering the common room. The perfect kind to curl up and read books in. A variety of reading lamps stood in corners of the room; they were able to be adjusted as seen fit by anyone who wished to read. Numerous bookshelves covered the wall, holding many tomes of literature in a multitude of genres in order to better expand the mind. Riddle books were very common as a riddle (or occasionally some other kind of question) needs to be answered to enter the common room but everyone enjoys different books, hence the vast bookshelves.</p>
<p>She sat in the meagre firelight (apparently the fires burn all night) holding her father’s and Matt’s wands. Only a few seconds later (precisely 4.32 seconds according to her scientific accurate wizards watch), there was a burst of blue light and Keith stood, wobbling slightly, in front of her holding a cat. She shrieked and fell onto the chair, thankfully not loud enough for anyone to hear. “Sorry,” he muttered and walked over as she pushed herself out of the chair. “No harm done; how did you do that? You can’t apparate in Hogwarts.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t Kosmo did,” he gestured to the cat in his arms, “he’s a cosmic cat. They look ordinary until they meet someone they like and reveal their cosmic blue fur. They also have teleportation abilities which work in Hogwarts.”</p>
<p>“Cool, cool, cool. So, we’re going to get around by a teleporting cat.” He nodded. She walked over and put her hand on Kosmo’s back.</p>
<p>“Astronomy tower,” said Keith and they disappeared stopping Pidge asked mid-sentence. There was a flash of blue light, and they were in the astronomy tower, Pidge grabbed Keith’s arm to stabilize herself.</p>
<p>“Ok, beyond cool,” said Pidge marvelling at the small, surprisingly adorable creature, “that felt so much better than apparating. So, how is this going to work?” Keith got out the newspapers he was holding. “Cryptids? Really?”</p>
<p>“Only partially, these other papers are actually auror subscription, Shiro keeps all his old papers filed in chronological order and the ministry never cancelled our subscription. They hold information on galra whereabouts and movements. We can go over them and round down where they’ve been and where the others could be.”</p>
<p>“That’s actually a really good plan. So, we name a time every day, and work on creating our own galra map of sorts. Let’s do this.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>They poured over the newspapers and maps marking down known sightings of the galra. Time flew by and it was already 4:30am. “We really should go back now,” said Keith for the 5<sup>th</sup> time that night/morning. “I guess you’re right. We’ve made real headway, I bet when we’re finished, we can show up the auror department.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m going to be dead in class tomorrow. I wish the houselves served coffee.”</p>
<p>“Me too.” Kosmo took them back to Ravenclaw tower then Keith went back to the 2<sup>nd</sup> year Gryffindor dorm. Thank god no one was awake. He passed out before his head even hit the pillow.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It went on like that for a month. Pidge would write a time and place and he would have Kosmo take them there. He constantly found himself wondering whether her friends missed her absence, he knew he did whenever she would go after a meeting. It was like that with Shiro.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Lance had been really, really confused by Pidge lately. She would always disappear at some point then reappear as if she was never gone. He knew Hunk had noticed too but he said nothing about it. “Do you think she’s blowing us off on purpose? It’s not like she actually needs to study for anything,” said Lance when he and Hunk were playing gobstones. “Yeah, I guess, I don’t think she would do that on purpose though. Maybe she’s just hanging out with another friend.”</p>
<p>“She has other friends?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. I think a girl in Ravenclaw, and oh right, Keith.” Lance snapped his head up from the game.</p>
<p>“You think she’s hanging out with Keith instead of us! We’re her best friends and Keith is our enemy.”</p>
<p>“First, he’s your enemy, he still scares me. And we’ve been her best friends for over a year now. I’m not saying she’ll move on, but maybe she’ll want to be friends with people who are more like her.”</p>
<p>“In the way that she’s snappish, in love with conspiracies and too smart for her own good?”</p>
<p>“Exactly. Our differences made us close but it’s ok for us to have other friends, you know that right.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah I do,” he said quietly. As if on cue, Pidge came through the portrait hole, she was looking a lot more cheerful lately, displayed clearly by the dazzling smile on her face, it wasn't big, but it was beautiful.</p>
<p>“What’s up?” she asked plopping down next to Hunk. “We were just talking about you,” Hunk said casually.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“You disappear a lot and look a lot more smiley than usual,” Lance said in an overly suspicious tone (drama queen through and through) “Wait, do you have a secret boyfriend?” said Lance, his loud voice disturbing a couple of first years.</p>
<p>“What! God no.”</p>
<p>“Girlfriend?”</p>
<p>“No way.”</p>
<p>“Partner/spouse/significant other?”</p>
<p>“No, simply, no. Ok, I’ll tell you.” They leaned into the middle of the circle that they had half formed after Pidge had sat in front of them, so that she could whisper without anyone hearing. “I’ve been seeing Dumbledore and McGonagall about Matt and my Dad. They’ve been really helpful.” Unbeknownst to Lance, this was actually a half-truth and it had been Keith who brightened her mood. They were working on how to get their families back.</p>
<p>“Oh, you could have said. It isn’t a laughing matter, we’re here for you Pidgey,” said Lance reassuringly. They performed the classic group hug as per bro code #451 and the boys were glad Pidge finally told them the truth about her sporadic disappearances.</p>
<p>Pidge on the other hand felt a bit guilty leaving her best friends out of the work she and Keith had been doing. She planned on telling them, just not yet. She had a feeling they would react badly, and she did <em>not</em> want to deal with that. Besides, Keith was actually really similar to her and they got on well like a house on fire. She hoped there was a chance the same would be true for her friends, they just had to get over their petty dislike (fear in the case of Hunk, seriously though, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of when it comes to Keith. Matt got a hold of kiddie pics of him, adorable, a true emo nightmare. Of course, Keith has no knowledge of the incident. Also, he is like, really into cryptids).</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>“Mr. Kogane, a word if you please.” Keith stopped short, he knew that gentle voice anywhere, everyone did. A few people shared confused or even scared glances as he turned toward the teacher. Dumbledore was standing at the end of the corridor. He turned quickly on his heel and followed the headmaster to his office. “Mint humbug,” he said, and the giant bird gargoyle started rotating to reveal a hidden staircase. He followed the teacher into his office and sat across from him. A beautiful bird flew down from a higher perch and looked at Keith curiously.</p>
<p>“Is that a phoenix?” he asked, gaping at the flame coloured creature.</p>
<p>“Yes, this is Fawkes.”</p>
<p>Keith dropped his gaze before saying, “am I in big trouble professor?”</p>
<p>“Oh no dear boy, on the contrary. I simply wished to know of your wellbeing. I did say back in September that I was available to speak to. I know you were going through a lot; I often like to speak with the houseleves.” Keith snapped his head back up and stared the teacher directly in the eyes.</p>
<p>“Did they tell you anything I said? I was under the impression they kept everything in good confidence.”</p>
<p>“Oh, they do, they were just worried about you. They all have taken a liking to you, considering they’re not very good with compliments.”</p>
<p>“It’s how we became so close, they’re nice to talk to. I’m dealing with this well, I think, Shiro was like the big brother and family I never had. The pain felt almost physical, but at least I still have Adam, and Pidge, she’s awesome.”</p>
<p>“Pidge?”</p>
<p>“Katie, Katie Holt. It’s her nickname. We became pretty good friends and bonded over the loss over our older brothers, and conspiracies naturally.” He felt that Dumbledore would ask to see him a lot more often if he said how he actually felt on the Kerberos front.</p>
<p>“Ah, so you helped each other with grief, it explains why both your moods have brightened. She used to see Minerva or I every day, her visits have become less frequent, almost non-existent in recent weeks which I believe you can thank yourself for.”</p>
<p>“I guess, was that everything?”</p>
<p>“I was a little curious about you and Ms. Holt’s dynamic,” said Dumbledore, eyeing him suspiciously, a mysterious yet cheeky smile adorning his face.</p>
<p>“We’re good friends, she’s my first as a matter of fact,” Dumbledore kept the stare going, rather intensely until Keith realised what he was implying, “Oh god no. No offence to her or anything, Pidge is great. We’re just friends and I’m thankful for it. Though I get asked about it more often than I would think normal.”</p>
<p>Dumbledore shrugged, “I was just curious Mr. Kogane. I have one last thing to say before you go.” He stood and walked over to a cabinet in the wall. Keith followed and inside was some kind of sink with shiny white and grey liquid swirling around. “What is that?” he asked.</p>
<p>“It’s a pensive. You can take thoughts or memories and place them in when they crowd your mind. Or you can view them, if you can’t remember them.” Keith knew what he was implying but never wished to see that again, or in the first place. He thought he was better off being told about his ‘dark’ past then actually seeing it.</p>
<p>“I’ll think about it professor, though I’m not incredibly keen on reliving foster care or when...” he stopped. He really, really didn’t want to literally dive into his memories. He would prefer to simply have them and not view them.</p>
<p>“It’s fine my boy. But feel free to come and use it or see me if you wish. That is all.”  Keith nodded then slipped from the room. He came down the staircase to find Pidge waiting for him.</p>
<p>“Hey, what’s up?” she asked brightly.  “Dumbledore asked me to see him, told me about his pensive and asked if we were a thing.”</p>
<p>“What is up with everyone assuming that? Can’t a boy and a girl just be friends?”</p>
<p>“Most of the time, no, in accordance with the heteronormativity code that comes into effect with the puberty hormone law. With us yes, are you going to see him?”</p>
<p>“I actually stopped last week. He’s actually great to talk to but it’s always dealing with grief and what not. But our hang out sessions doubling as investigations into the galra have given me so much hope and reassurance, so I don’t need to be told about how to deal with grief and whatever.”</p>
<p>He suddenly wondered how she knew where he was, she walked off from class before Dumbledore asked him to his office.</p>
<p>“How did you know where I was?” She blinked. “I have this awesome map of the castle depicting all its hiding spots, getaway tunnels and everyone and where they are.”</p>
<p>“Cool, so what do you want to do?” She shrugged; he knew she had something in mind.</p>
<p>“I was thinking we could look through the restricted section for history, there’s a chance we could find something since literally no one looks it up.” They walked off speaking in low voices so no one could hear their debate about galra history and how the heritage and genes work.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>They showed the librarian their restricted section passes, McGonagall gave them to them so they could look up whatever they wished, for dealing with grief and such. She was also not averse to deepening knowledge of fellow students to better understand their predicaments. They were kind of taking advantage of the professor’s sympathy, but in retrospect, they had both lost their brothers and had a right to look at specific history, if that’s how they wanted to spend their time. Pidge scanned the shelves and found the more recent ones. 1900-2000. They both took off the ones which had to do with the galra or Zarkon’s powerful followers. She scanned the pages looking for details on what they did.</p>
<p>“Oh, this is pretty interesting,” called Pidge. She was sitting on the bench beneath the shelves reading a book on Zarkon’s time at Hogwarts. “What?” called Keith from the other side of the floor to ceiling shelf. They were shushed by the librarian, so Pidge stage whispered.</p>
<p>“Apparently, Lord Zarkon Galra was really close with a famous Altea. They helped each other get girlfriends and whatnot. They had a friendship group called the coloured lions. His best friend is the only one alive from the group and is actually none other than our minister of magic.”</p>
<p>“Really? Minister Alfor is as old as Zarkon?”</p>
<p>“Zarkon’s only a few months older. Apparently Alfor’s heritage is like, almost direct to Nicolas Flamel Altea, meaning he’d live about just over two times as long as other people. The coloured lions knew a lot of Zarkon’s secrets and after befriending a certain Haggar, he became more and more secretive and wished to do malicious things to the rest of the world. The coloured lions tried to stop him before anything could get out of hand.”</p>
<p>Keith was suddenly sitting directly in front of her on the bench, he had a tendency to walk around without making any noise.</p>
<p>“What did the coloured lions threaten?” he asked, really into the story apparently. He was bouncing his leg, something to do with excitement or perhaps a nervous tic? He seemed to be glowing with the curiosity and wonder of a five-year-old. He was leaning forward, emphasising his intrigue, and he seemed… overly ecstatic for something of this brand of fact. A kind of fascination she had only really seen in Matt talking algebra, Adam talking space, Shiro talking DADA and Keith himself talking about cryptids and conspiracies.</p>
<p>“They threatened to expose not only his, but Haggar’s secrets too, to the world. He wouldn’t be able to run for minister of magic and Haggar would lose her spell experimentation licence. They plotted together with their early followers to get rid of the coloured lions. He asked them to one last meeting and told them of what he had discovered.” Keith’s eyes were wide in anticipation. What Pidge was reading technically had nothing to do with their search for galra activities, but this was too interesting. “The page is ripped out,” she said matter of factly.</p>
<p>“So, there’s no more?” Keith asked disappointedly and pouted. She had never seen him do that before and it was like he put his whole body into the look of mixed irritation and sadness. His back slumped, eyes sad, arms drooping, whole body working towards the sulk. She had to stop herself from outright giggling, the expression was very Keith, but she had never first-hand seen him do that.</p>
<p>“No there is, just the part about what he told them. He and Haggar used an unforgivable curse so powerful, it took out three. One dived in front of Alfor, sacrificing herself so he could tell the world what happened. She had been writing an account of everything that happened and Alfor turned it into a book. He wanted Zarkon to step down from his position as minister, but he wouldn’t. Zarkon said that the book contained Alfor’s part in his rise to power. Alfor then destroyed Zarkon’s beloved hometown as revenge for his deceased friends. Zarkon finally stepped down and vowed to one day destroy Alfor’s heritage and legacy, some kind of grudge against the Alteas.”</p>
<p>“Wow.”</p>
<p>“That’s something you can add to your title, saviour of Alteas because you killed him before he killed them.” Keith gave her a pointed look. “Just a joke, dark humour.”</p>
<p>“Who was in the coloured lions.” She looked back at the book and scanned it for their names.</p>
<p>“Ah, ok. The group was formed by Zarkon, he called himself the black lion. His right-hand-man of the group was none other than Alfor Altea, the red lion. The other original three, who were killed, were Trigel Dalterion the green lion, Blaytz Nalqoud the blue lion and Gyrgan Rygnirath the yellow lion. They all looked into ancient curses and cool stuff like that. Though, their chosen colours only matched Alfor and Grygan as they were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.</p>
<p>“According to the book, Trigel’s last words were, ‘the chosen ones will arise and band together on the night of the arrival, they will soon after Form Voltron.’ She was pretty good with predictions and stuff. Alfor looked into this and found out that it referenced an ancient curse and its counter. Zarkon discovered the curse and used it, to this day only the galra know about what it truly is. Many people, under Alfor’s command, looked into who the chosen ones could be and what she meant by ‘the arrival.’ Still, no one knows.”</p>
<p>“That is really cool. Let’s take out this book along with-”</p>
<p>“Pidge!” Their heads snapped up at the same time to see two boys enter the library. Pidge checked her watch and saw that she had been MIA for the past three or so hours.</p>
<p>“Well shit,” she muttered and picked up the books. She knew how offended and hurt her best friends would be that she blew them off for Keith of all people.</p>
<p>Keith had suddenly disappeared. Her friends were nearing her for an interrogation when she felt someone pull her behind a bookcase. There was no one there. Then a giant piece of fabric was pulled over her, she almost shrieked when she was faced with Keith. He held his finger to his lips as her friends slipped around the corner.</p>
<p>“Are you sure you saw her?” asked Hunk as he and Lance rounded the corner of the bookcase. “Of course I did, with Keith. I swear! I’m pretty sure she’s been blowing us off for Keith! I mean really, we’re her best friends.”</p>
<p>“Remember what I said,” said Hunk in a defeated tone. Lance sighed.</p>
<p>“Yeah, maybe she isn’t here. I doubt she would hang out with Keith of all people though. ‘The Enemy<sup>TM</sup>’ c’mon” They continued their search for a couple of minutes and left. Pidge let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding in. She looked at Keith, he stared after them as they left with a mixture of pity and confusion.</p>
<p>“What the hell is with this cloak,” she whispered.</p>
<p>“It’s my invisibility cloak. Someone anonymously gave it to me saying it’s been in my family on my dad’s side. I read a legend that states death itself created one and a wizard tricked him out of it, the cloak supposedly was able to hide the wizard from death. Anyway, sorry about that.”</p>
<p>“It’s fine. Thanks for getting me out of there, being your friend is a sore subject that I don’t understand anymore.”</p>
<p>“Anytime. So, the lanky one, he hates me?” Keith actually sounded a little confused at this statement. But Pidge still didn’t understand why for the life of him, Keith could never remember anyone’s names, especially Lance for some reason.</p>
<p>“I think it’s more of a strong dislike. Can you take me under this cloak to the Gryffindor common room? Maybe they can convince themselves that they were seeing things, I don’t know.” He simply nodded and whispered for his cat. How was he supposed to hear him? There was a flash of blue light and the familiar blue and grey cat was in Keith’s arms. She was thankful that the light was contained under the cloak.</p>
<p>“How did he hear you?” she asked dumbfounded. If there was anything Pidge hated, it was not understanding something. “He can always hear me. I don’t really know how it works but he always knows when I call him, from anywhere.”</p>
<p>“Like a psychic link?” He shrugged.</p>
<p>“Maybe. Kosmo, outside Gryffindor tower.” Pidge touched the cat and the cloak in the flash of light. They now stood by the fat lady’s portrait. She went out from under the cloak and muttered thanks. She didn’t see him nod. There was a small, contained, flash of light this time.</p>
<p>“Et advenæ,” she said, and the portrait hole swung open. Funny, that translated to ‘the arrival’ in Latin. Why was everything today to do with ‘the arrival.’ First the book, now the portrait? Fine it was only two, but <span class="u">not</span> a coincidence in her opinion.</p>
<p>She went over to their favourite couch, the one with the slightly ratty throw and the faded floral cushions, and got out some books. Only a few moments later, Hunk and Lance came through and stared at her very, very confused. Ok, maybe all this was pretty funny and a good prank, but she didn’t want her friends to feel hurt. She wasn’t being selfish; Keith was also her friend and she had a right to hang out with him. He was also her best bet at finding her family.</p>
<p>“How are you here?” asked Lance, sitting directly next to her, Hunk on her other side. This was starting to seem like an interrogation and she certainly didn’t want that.</p>
<p>“I got here a few minutes ago, where have you guys been?” Pidge asked in a thankfully neutral tone.</p>
<p>“We thought we saw you in the library with Keith like ten minutes ago,” said Hunk in a clearly confused tone.</p>
<p>“I went yesterday, so what have you guys been doing?” They shared a confused glance above her head, and she shoved them. “What did I say about making fun of my height?” Lance smiled at her.</p>
<p>“That we have full permission to do it 4ft.” she elbowed him, and he laughed.</p>
<p>“I have a bunch of tall people in my family. I’ll outgrow you one day, and you’ll regret everything.”</p>
<p>“Hmm, no. Doubt it shortstack.” They launched into a playful argument. Pidge was glad they had gotten away from the topic of her disappearance.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They spent the rest of the afternoon studying. Pidge getting it all done quickly, Lance whining about the workload and Hunk trying to motivate him. Pidge was looking over astronomy when Lance complained, “I wanna look at the stars!” Pidge groaned then looked at a page from their first year, it depicted Mars and its moons in sights. She tried to look for what it was called when Hunk tried to get him to do his work loudly.</p>
<p>“Maybe we can look at the stars later, if you get this done.” Lance quickly brightened at that.</p>
<p>“Yay, fine.” He picked up his astronomy book and oohed and ahhed at all the pictures. “Cool, tonight’s a rare occurrence that hasn’t happened in like, 5 millennia or something.” Pidge snapped her head up.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Apparently, Mars and its moons haven’t been seen all together in 5 freaking thousand years, that dates all the way back to the creation and founders of Hogwarts. I hope I can get out of here to see it.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t know you were so into astronomy and history,” Pidge said bluntly. He gasped dramatically.</p>
<p>“I’ll have you know they’re my favourite subjects, along with Defence against the dark arts before that idiot Haxus was hired.” Pidge threw back her head and laughed. “What’s so funny?”</p>
<p>“Nothing, just that’s the exact, word for word opinion of the one and only ‘Enemy<sup>TM</sup>’ Keith.” He looked mortified.</p>
<p>“Did you just compare me to Keith.” She said nothing and instead wrote in her private chat with Keith. “I’m going to go stargazing tonight, something tells me we’re going to have a breakthrough.” Red glistening ink formed on the cream paper.</p>
<p>“Cool, think I might go for a midnight fly and watch the phenomenon from the sky.”</p>
<p>“And if you get in trouble?”</p>
<p>“I’ll say that me and Shiro used to stargaze on brooms.”</p>
<p>“Did you really?”</p>
<p>“No, he was never into it.” She closed the book with a snap and found her friends gawking at her.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Were you just writing to Keith? In the middle of a conversation?” Lance said it like it was the most offensive thing in the world. She shrugged and went back to her room; it was pretty late.</p>
<p>“I’ve got a date with a telescope,” she chanted in her head in a singsong voice.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading, I had a lot of fun coming up with the concept of roping in the old paladins. I love the originals and hope I've done them justice, let me know what you think.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Form Voltron</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Arrival. Simply about the arrival of a young man believed to be dead, destiny brought the paladins and knights together.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Finally things kick off. I'm not sure if this is super long or not but they needed to 'form voltron' before chapter 7 so here you go. I really hope you're enjoy this fic.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance kept thinking about ‘The Arrival,’ he couldn’t sleep. And per usual, so was Keith. But for once, he wasn’t reading. He was looking at a wand and muttering. It wasn’t his wand; he didn’t need to look at Keith all the time to know that! He sighed.</p>
<p>He sat up and took out the marauders map. As a Hogwarts marauder, he had a right to watch over it occasionally. Pidge let him have it before she left so he would shut up about the stars. He looked over it. Everyone was in their rooms, Hunk wasn’t moving, and neither was, wait. The little scroll labelled Katie Holt got up and started to sneak out of her dorm. “Where is she going? he wondered and got out his notebook.</p>
<p>“Hunk? You up?” he wrote in their private chat. The little scroll labelled Hunk Garrett moved in a little circle before he got an answer.</p>
<p>“Now I am, what do you want?”</p>
<p>“Pidge just snuck out of her room, I wanna see where she’s going.”</p>
<p>“Lance drop it.”</p>
<p>“Ooh, she’s heading to the astronomy tower. She’s going up the staircase. I want to see the arrival. Maybe it’s going to foretell some kind of event, I want to go see it.”</p>
<p>“Fiiiine, I’ll meet you there.” The conversation ended so Lance pocketed his notebook and wand before heading out. He looked behind him and saw Keith staring at him quizzically.</p>
<p>The sky outside was a beautiful navy purple, it would turn completely midnight in just a few minutes. The dim light seemed to cast shadows around Keith, snaking around his torso, curling like tendrils around his arms. His jet-black hair framed his face and looked even more luscious than usual. His dark violet eyes had a glow which lance had never seen before. God, he looked really cute. Wait what?</p>
<p>He jerked his head quickly to the side to hide his rising blush and rushed out. He shook his head to clear his mind. Um, no thank you. We do <em>not </em>think stupid things like that. The boy is an absolute nightmare! Brain, why do you treat me like you do? He’s the ENEMY! Goddamn it brain, thought we were on the same page.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Why did McClain stare at him like that? He simply wondered why he was sneaking out of the dorm in the middle of the night. His expression kept toying with Keith though, he looked confused in away but also, fond? Was that possible? He tried to push the thought out of his head, but it kept coming back. Why did he care so much? He was probably just seeing things. But, for some strange reason, he wasn’t repulsed by the thought of McClain being fond of him. Odd.</p>
<p>Then he remembered Pidge saying how Lance had been suspicious of her behaviour; maybe he was going to the astronomy tower. He got out his notebook and wrote to her. His normally black ink coloured bright red against the cream paper.</p>
<p>“Hey, u in the astronomy tower?” Glistening dark ink started to form words almost instantly.</p>
<p>“Yeah. I’m looking at Mars right now wh__________”. Her quill must have slipped.</p>
<p>“Was going to warn u about McClain and your other friend showing up.” It was a minute or so before she responded.</p>
<p>“I wish you wrote that a fraction of a second faster cause I just got the biggest scare of my life.”</p>
<p>“Sorry.”</p>
<p>“S’fine, bye.” He closed the notebook and looked out the window. Even without a telescope, he could see mars and its moons, cool.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Lance and Hunk headed up through the trap door and saw Pidge sitting in front of a telescope by the far end. She had on those muggle headphone things. Lance forgot what they did, either they played or cancelled noise, one or the other. He crept over to her and gently lifted her muggle thing. “Did ‘ja come up here to rock out?” She shrieked and her quill slipped across her notebook as she turned to face him.</p>
<p>“Jesus fucking Christ Lance! You just gave me heart palpitations!” True to her word, her chest was heaving from the scare.</p>
<p>“I think I can take that as a compliment,” he said wiggling his eyebrows. She in turn rolled her eyes and wrote quickly in her notebook before putting it away.</p>
<p>“No, you can’t. Why are you guys up here?”</p>
<p>“Lance thought he was going to catch you hanging out with someone else instead of ow! Hey!” He really didn’t want Hunk to tell Pidge about his suspicions.</p>
<p>“Actually, Hunk promised me I could look at the stars tonight if I did my homework, which I did!” He looked up through the telescope next to Pidge’s. It was a beautiful sight; Mars was flanked by both of its moons directly on its sides. They all seemed to have a glow to them, Mars was bright red and the moons shone pure white. “Wow, Voltron is more beautiful than I imagined.”</p>
<p>“Wait, Voltron?” asked Hunk.</p>
<p>“Yeah, that’s the name for it in astronomy. Pidge, why are you so quiet? Are you ok?” Pidge paled a little at the mention of Voltron, that would have been hard for her anyway with her complexion, yet she managed to.</p>
<p>“I read a book which had a prophecy about Voltron, I didn’t know what it meant,” she paused and tried to figure out something. Lance could practically see the cogs turning in her mind, but she didn’t decide to grace them with whatever strange thing she was thinking about. Out of nowhere, there was a loud crack. It sounded like thunder, but the sky was clear.</p>
<p>“Look!” shouted Hunk. It must have come from the forbidden forest. Lights flashed through the trees, lighting up the night sky. Most where white but some were tinted other colours. Reds, greens, golds. It looked like spells were being cast, powerful ones.</p>
<p>“Whoa, what the hell?” asked Lance in awe, “someone must be in trouble. We should go help.”</p>
<p>“Wait why?” asked Hunk sounding incredibly nervous.</p>
<p>“Because, when someone’s in trouble, you go hel- awe hell no!” he shouted. Someone jumped out of a window from Gryffindor tower, he’d recognise that hairstyle from miles away.</p>
<p>“What?” asked Pidge clearly confused.</p>
<p>“He is not going to beat us to it. I swear he’s always trying to one-up me. Accio brooms.”</p>
<p>“Who?”</p>
<p>“Keith.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure?”</p>
<p>“Oh, I’d recognise that mullet anywhere.”</p>
<p>“Of course, you would,” said Pidge, voice dripping with sarcasm. His broom and a spare flew up to them.</p>
<p>“Pidge you fly with me. Hunk, you follow,” he said chucking the other to his best friend. He caught it and fumbled nervously. “You can do this. Just think, fly. Pidge, get on.”  She did so, thankfully not reluctantly. He jumped off with Pidge sitting in front of him and Hunk following close behind.</p>
<p>“Pull up!” he instructed, and Hunk did remarkably well, but he could tell he was going to throw up soon. They flew to the edge of the forest, then touched down because the vegetation was too thick to fly through and Hunk was clearly going to be sick any second. Keith seemed to know where he was going so he followed at a distance.</p>
<p>They must have been walking for half an hour or so, when Keith broke into a run. Lance and his friends started running to catch up to the surprisingly speedy emo. Keith burst through the line of trees and into a clearing; they stopped at the edge of it. Lance’s breath caught in his throat, dementors. There were two, a galra and an unconscious man. She saw Keith and raised her wand into the air.</p>
<p>“Mosmorde!” she shouted and the galra mark appeared red in the sky, she smiled wickedly. The dementors began their descent. Keith took out his wand and yelled, “Expecto patronum!” A shiny white silver wave blew out and a translucent wolf, the same colour as the funny light, burst out of his wand and chased them away. It truly was something beautiful to behold, Pidge drew a quick breath in, shocked.</p>
<p>Lance couldn’t help but think how stunning the spirit-like figure looked. How it lit up Keith’s face with a pale, ghostly light. How the wolf was so, definitely, undeniably Keith. The galra turned on her heal and left the clearing, as she couldn’t apparate on the grounds. Keith ran over to the unconscious man, it was professor Shirogane. He felt Pidge go fully still.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Keith’s eyes widened as he finally got a good look at the man, Shiro. His arm was gone and replaced with a silver prosthetic and his bangs were now white. He pulled the man to his feet and started walking over to his broom, everything looked dark after his patronus disappeared. “Nope. No, no, n-no you don’t I’m saving Shirogane!” shouted someone coming out from the line of trees. Keith still couldn’t see well as the person came over. “Who are you?” he asked as they put Shiro’s prosthetic over their shoulders, were they a student?</p>
<p>“Who am I? The name’s Lance.” His vision was starting to return, it was a boy and he was batting his eyelashes, McClain. “We’re like rivals!” Yep, definitely McClain.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, you’re Ronnie’s brother.” He knew that hit home.</p>
<p>“I’m not just her brother! I’m in the top of our year and on the team!”</p>
<p>“Well, congratulations.”</p>
<p>“We need to go! The ministry can’t apparate directly into the Hogwarts grounds but I think Dumbledore will lower that so they can find who fired the dark mark. Now!”</p>
<p>“Pidge? That you?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, Lance wanted to come help whoever was being attacked and dragged us along, like I said, we need to go.”</p>
<p>“Right, right,” He and Lance took Shiro to the edge of the clearing, “Shiro’s unconscious so he’ll fly with me. Pidge you go with Lance.” he muttered a spell and cast it at the brooms that sat in a small pile on the floor. At once they all ascended and formed a straight (ha, likely) line.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” asked Lance as Keith got Shiro on his broom and sat behind him.</p>
<p>“I charmed the brooms so they’ll follow me in a formation, you haven’t flown through here before and could go directly into a tree.” He rolled his eyes as they mounted. Keith kicked off and went at a moderate speed, which probably would have been incredibly fast to most. He swerved between the trees avoiding every obstacle with practiced ease. He heard a crack to the side; Dumbledore must have lowered the apparition barrier.</p>
<p>People started popping up everywhere making the others jump in fear, thankfully no one slipped off their brooms and they were going too fast for any officials to ID them. “I could fly perfectly well myself!” shouted Lance. “Oh?” he purposefully almost crashed into a tree but swerved away at the last second. Pidge screamed. “Sorry Pidge!”</p>
<p>“Hey apologise to me! You are one hell of a reckless flyer!”</p>
<p>“Yeah? Are you scared?” He barrel rolled 3 times to get greater speed and not just to show off, ok maybe a little.</p>
<p>“With you at the helm? Terrified.” He laughed and stole a glance behind him. Pidge was almost lying on the broom, her knuckles almost bone white. Lance was glaring at him, but his cheeks looked a little darker than normal, it wasn’t that cold was it?</p>
<p>He felt that someone was going to apparate in front of them, it would be better to fly above the line of trees. He picked up as much speed as he dared and shot upwards, rotating at upwards at a 90-degree angle. Just in time, a second later and the auror would have apparated through the last boy, the big one, tall dark and handsome. They burst through the canopy of dark green leaves and shot towards the castle.</p>
<p>“We can’t go to the castle! Then we’d have to answer some questions we can’t afford to. This could all be a federal offence. Coran would know what to do!” shouted Pidge. He swerved and made a practised beeline for the professor’s cabin. As they were going at an angle, they got there much faster by allowing gravity some leeway. They landed and they other boy collapsed hugging the ground.</p>
<p>“Oh sweet, sweet stable ground!”</p>
<p>“Come on Hunk!” Lance barked, the irritation clear in his voice. So, his name was Hunk, fitting, no need to call him ‘tall, dark and handsome’ anymore. Lance walked over and helped him with Shiro once more. Pidge got there first and knocked. The door opened almost instantly; he didn’t show his shock. Or maybe he wasn’t. Professor Coran was incredibly weird, but he was also incredibly accepting.</p>
<p>“Good evening Pidge, Lance, Hunk oh Keith. Lovely to see you. Who’s unconscious?” Keith had to hold in a laugh. He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.</p>
<p>“Shiro, he’s back! He’s alive. We need to figure out our next moves, can we stay here for a bit?”</p>
<p>“Of course, dear girl. Come in, come in would anyone like tea? Oh, I should check Shiro for you.” They bustled in and lay Shiro on the couch, he had a thick scar along his face across his nose. Coran came over with a healing kit. His eyes widened as he took in Shiro’s face.</p>
<p>“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked Keith worried by his expression, his scar looked very similar to Keith’s.</p>
<p>“Nothing my boy, I haven’t seen my colleague in a while that’s all. I didn’t think he was gone either. Mr. Holt, Matt and Shiro are some of the most formidable aurors known, I knew there was no way they had been killed.” Pidge whispered something and he nodded. She slipped outside; the boys followed her naturally.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” asked Lance casually. “Writing to Allura, if there’s anyone who could instantly solve a problem, it’s the princess.”</p>
<p>“Wait what? You’re friends with Allura?” Why had she not told him? He ranted about her sometimes and Pidge didn’t even care to tell him that she could introduce him.</p>
<p>“Yeah. On the first day back, I tried to go up to the girls dormitory then some pushed me saying no boys allowed up. Allura defended me in an instant and we became friends. And no, she isn’t the one I was hanging out with.” Ha, Lance was smart even if he liked to play dumb, and Pidge just admitted she was blowing him off.</p>
<p>“So you have been hanging out with someone else instead of us,” she tensed, he could practically hear her saying frick, “come on Pidgey, why can’t you tell me?”</p>
<p>“She’s on her way.” he looked up and someone had just jumped out of Ravenclaw tower. Flying directly out of the castle had just become a trend. She made her descent quickly and at a full 45 degrees. As she got closer, he could tell something was wrong. So did Keith. They ran forwards at the same time, Lance had longer legs so got there first. He practically leapt through the air and caught Allura just before she crashed. She almost slumped in his arms; she must have been asleep beforehand.</p>
<p>“Shit,” she muttered, “that was fucking embarrassing.” She finally looked up at him but didn’t release her hold on his arms. He could feel the heat to his cheeks, her eyes were the most gorgeous turquoise, still not as pretty as Keith’s. Goddam it! Don’t think about him when the princess is literally in your arms.</p>
<p>“Hello,” he put on his best charm. She looked at him quizzically, she was obviously sleep deprived, but it did nothing to her looks. “Who are you?”</p>
<p>“I’m Lance, and you’re here in my arms.” She rolled her eyes and pushed herself to her feet still holding onto him.</p>
<p>“If that was an attempt at flirting, it was ridiculous.” He heard snickering behind him, damn Keith.</p>
<p>“Keith? Keith Kogane?” She asked looking passed him. She didn’t sound scared, just, curious.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>“You don’t remember me.” She sounded a little defeated. Keith looked confused as he took her in, then recognition sparked across his face.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, we did spell practice together last Christmas.” Keith knew her too.</p>
<p>“Does everyone know you except me?” Lance asked a little heated.</p>
<p>“I don’t,” said Hunk as he and Pidge walked over, “nice to meet you Allura, I’m Hunk. Or should I call you princess?” He was genuinely curious and thankfully Allura didn’t take it as an insult.</p>
<p>“I still don’t know why people took to calling me that. Just because my father is minister doesn’t make me royalty. What’s the situation Pidge?” She stood straighter and picked up her broom. They walked back to Coran’s cabin.</p>
<p>“Shiro’s still alive. We found him in the forest and Keith, wait. You can perform a full patronus?” asked Pidge rounding on him. Allura answered for him.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t expect less. Your casting ability is practically unrivalled. Why did you need to use the charm?”</p>
<p>“Shiro was unconscious and there was a galra commanding two dementors. I drove them off and we got out of there,” said Keith as they approached.</p>
<p>“Galra? Of course. We need to act fast, Shiro must have been their prisoner. They must have decided he wasn’t worth keeping or he escaped, and they wanted him gone. It would be dangerous if he went back to the real world, we must keep him hidden and keep up the pretence.” The princess spoke at a speed almost faster than anyone could listen. Shit must be serious. She pushed open the door and they piled in.</p>
<p>There were 6 steaming mugs on the table. God bless Coran and his kind heart, his tea making skills, there should be a ballad composed to this man. He is beauty, he is grace, there is a moustache on his face (Thank you, thank you, I call it: Coran, Coran, The Gorgeous Man). Coran walked over and wrapped her in his massive arms.</p>
<p>“Good to see you. Do we have a game plan?” asked Coran. He picked up a chipped blue mug and took a long draught. They soon followed suit.</p>
<p>“Yes, if we told people Shiro was in fact alive, then it could risk his and the other galra prisoner’s safety. I suggest we take him to the room of requirement.”</p>
<p>They talked for a while and worked out all the details (well not all the details but who’s counting right, right?). “Alright, then we need to go now. It’s almost four in the morning and some people could be wondering where we are. I have a teleporting cat who could take us there now,” said Keith taking charge. “You have a teleporting cat?” asked Hunk incredulously.</p>
<p>“Kosmo,” he said and there was a flash of blue light. The grey cat sat in his lap and licked at his fingers, Pidge pet him softly. Lance looked on, furious; fuck Keith for always one-upping him. Even his cat! Jeeze! (Obviously not <em>fuck</em> Keith, both of them are underage and it’s not like he likes the guy, look at Lance backing himself into a corner) “Does that answer your question?” They all gaped, with similar expressions of shock and surprise at the cat, all except for Pidge.</p>
<p>“You kids work it out and update me later.” They nodded and all placed a hand on the cat, per Keith’s instruction.</p>
<p>“7<sup>th</sup> floor corridor,” he said and there was another flash of blue light. They suddenly stood in the 7<sup>th</sup> floor corridor with Shiro on the floor. Hunk looked sick, Lance stumbled over his own two feet, Pidge shook her head, disorientated, Keith swore under his breath. Only Allura retained her poise and grace as she glided toward the far wall, it looked plain to Lance, you know, the run of the mill stone wall. She faced it and closed her eyes, walking back and forth and muttering under her breath (oooooh~ spoookeyy).</p>
<p>A door magically constructed itself, it looked somewhat like a grandiose broom cupboard. She pushed it open and he and Keith carried Shiro in. It was quite big, had floor to ceiling bookshelves and a bed off to the side, complete with two plush pillows and a blue starry bedsheet. He caught Pidge staring at all the books in amazement.</p>
<p>He redirected his gaze to Keith. He was smiling at all the bookshelves; face lit up with what only can be described with joy, hair tucked on one side behind his ear. God awful mullet staring him right in the face, but he was <strike>distracted</strike> focusing on those violet eyes. They glittered with the gaze of a thousand suns and caught the light like a drop of dew on a violet petal. Cute.</p>
<p>Wow, ok, Nope! Not going there. Task at hand. Yes. Don’t panic.</p>
<p>They lay Shiro on the bed and used the small potion Coran gave them to wake him up. It smelled like an especially pungent alcohol. He opened his eyes blearily and took in the sight of five students staring down at him.</p>
<p>“Keith?” he mumbled. Keith smiled at him softly. “Yeah, I’m here. I got you, you’re safe now.” He leaned down and wrapped his arms around the man. Shiro did the same. What was their relationship? <strike>Boyfriends?</strike> God why would he think that, erase brain, erase!</p>
<p>“Where am I?”</p>
<p>“The room of requirement. I’ve been roped in and I guess we’re going to be like a secret club protecting you from the ministry,” said Allura.</p>
<p>“I’m in Hogwarts?”</p>
<p>“Yes, but Shiro, what about my family? Matt? Dad?” asked Pidge.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry Katie, I don’t know. I think they used memory charms on me or something. I’m going to sleep now if that’s alright with everyone.” They nodded simultaneously as Shiro dropped into unconsciousness.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We’re going to need a name,” said Hunk as they readied to leave. A collective look of bafflement. “Y’know if we’re gonna be a team or a club or something?” They all thought for a moment. “How about Voltron?” asked Lance.</p>
<p>“Why?” asked Keith sceptically. Ugh, of course, this meant he had to see a lot more of Keith now, and they already shared every class and a dorm! Albeit with other boys.</p>
<p>“Because we all came together tonight, on the night of The Arrival. You know, celebrate the day. The last Voltron was during the time of the Hogwarts founders, it’s pretty special.” They all thought for a moment.</p>
<p>“That sounds pretty good. But, what do we call ourselves? Are we all Voltron, Voltrons?” asked Hunk.</p>
<p>“We’ll be the paladins, the paladins of Voltron.” It was Allura’s turn to ask why. “Because we all rushed to help whoever was fighting in the woods. It was like an instinct to do good, like a paladin.”</p>
<p>“Ok cool, we’re the paladins of Voltron. So, that’s it?” asked Pidge.</p>
<p>“I don’t really want to be a paladin if that’s alright,” said Allura almost shyly.</p>
<p>“You want to be a princess?” asked Hunk.</p>
<p>“No, the title can be irritating, and I am called it anyway. You be the paladins; I’ll be a knight. You all formed together in the forest, and I came along when called. Can we please go back to our dorms now?” They filed out of the room and went their separate ways. Hunk went to the basement, Allura and Pidge headed to Ravenclaw tower and Lance had to head back with Keith. He stroked the cat as he walked.</p>
<p>“Why did you hug Shiro?” he asked as they went up the penultimate staircase.</p>
<p>“He’s my brother.” Oh.</p>
<p>“Really?”</p>
<p>“I’ll save you the sob story, I was in foster care and he took me out. He’s the first person in my life who cared essentially.” Oh, he felt a little bad now, maybe he should refrain from the insults, tone it back a little.</p>
<p>Keith ran up the stairs at the last second beating him to the portrait hole. He turned to smirk at him before going in, oh it’s on.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading. Comment, maybe. It took such a long time for them to come together. Are the parallels good? </p>
<p>(if anyone noticed the drastic change in swearing, I momentarily forgot that they range from 12-15. But making them swear properly is just easier)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Truce</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aaand there comes the massive workload with being a Voltron paladin or knight. Researching, studying and most of all, the golden trio's first christmas away from their parents.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was originally going to be 7 chapters but it was just too much to fit in. Chapter 8 is hella long so enjoy the mild pretty oblivious fluff.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance sat up quickly, did he have a nightmare? He never usually remembered his dreams, so why did he feel so afraid? He realised the room was empty, how late was it? 8.10am, at least it was Saturday, he could be late to breakfast if he wanted to be. It all came flooding back, rescuing Shiro, becoming friends with Allura and forming their group.</p>
<p>He dressed quickly and made his way down to the great hall. Hunk and Pidge were at Gryffindor table, since it was on the far wall, it was preferable if they didn’t want their conversations to be overheard. He plopped himself down into the seat next to Hunk.</p>
<p>Pidge muttered something and shook her head. “What?” he asked reaching for toast. “I still don’t understand how after about 3 or hours of sleep, you come down looking like that!” she gestured to his face. He always stuck to his skincare regimen, taught to him by Veronica and Luis, like a family tradition. He was used to his good looks, but he wasn’t used to them actually being pointed out. For one thing, Pidge looked paler than normal with bigger bags under her eyes. Hunk wasn’t much better; he did stand out.</p>
<p>“It’s called taking care of your face,” he said simply putting on the Spanish accent which Veronica used to annoy him with, “So what’s happening?” Hunk and Pidge exchanged tired glances.</p>
<p>“We were waiting on you, we thought you would come down with Keith cause you’re in the same dorm. We haven’t seen him though,” said Hunk tiredly. Just because they were all in on some big conspiracy didn’t mean he had to be friends with his enemy.</p>
<p>“He wasn’t there when I woke up, and even if he was, I wouldn’t walk down with him.” Pidge rolled her eyes, the expression was so powerful it seemed as if she had put her whole body into the motion.</p>
<p>“You’re going to keep up the whole rivalry thing?”</p>
<p>“He is my enemy; I’m not stooping to make friends.”</p>
<p>“One would call that rising, what you are doing is stooping and simply childish.” Keith chose that moment to walk in.</p>
<p>He kept his head down as trudged over to the Gryffindor table. Pidge motioned for him to join, he obliged reluctantly. How did he manage to look like that? Like he had a good night’s sleep? He was quite pale, but he didn’t look any worse than normal. The bags under his eyes weren’t that bad and his cheeks were flushed slightly so he looked full of life and not sleep deprived. He knew for a fact that this mess of a boy did not own a hairbrush so how the hell did he get it to look so smooth, even after such an eventful night! Lance always had to put so much work into his looks and Keith seemed to pull it off effortlessly, not fair.</p>
<p>Keith was staring at him quizzically as he sat down next to Pidge. “He only looks like that because he spends, like, hours doing like cosmetics and whatnot.” Keith nodded and almost blindly reached for the cereal. He muttered something about being surprised he can function without coffee.</p>
<p>“So where were you? Lance said you weren’t in the dorm this morning.” Keith flinched, it was small and barely noticeable but it was there.</p>
<p>“Lance was out cold; it was kind of funny.”</p>
<p>“Hey!” Lance. After a second, he remembered that Keith apparently didn’t know his name beforehand. The fact that he remembered now, and was using it made his stomach feel warm. He wasn’t quite sure why.</p>
<p>“Anyway, I woke up at 6 and couldn’t go back to sleep because I was worried about Shiro. I went back to the room of requirement and we talked for a bit, he helped me sleep and I woke up like, 20 minutes ago.” He went back to eating quietly.</p>
<p>“S-so I was wondering,” Hunk started, with a very noticeable stutter. Keith looked up at him, Lance could see that his best friend was still a little scared, “What’s you and Shiro’s relationship, you guys seem so close.”</p>
<p>“Oh. He’s my big brother, not blood related. He took me out of foster care, wizard, or I guess, squib kind. But I guess he’s my legal dad, we have more of a brother relationship though.”</p>
<p>“Wait, hold the phone. He’s your dad?” Lance was shocked, he was always jealous of Keith and Shiro’s closeness, he didn’t realise they were that kind of close.</p>
<p>“Legally, he adopted me before he went on the Kerberos mission, like a promise he would come back. That’s why it hurt even more when it was announced that the mission failed, like I finally got a family just to have it taken away again.” He looked down and stopped talking all together. His jaw was clenched tight as he chewed with ferocity. Lance felt his breath catch in his throat; he had never actually wrapped his head around Keith’s situation. But if being his enemy was all playful banter, he wasn’t doing any harm, right? He was wrenched from his thoughts by the entrance of the princess.</p>
<p>Even sleep deprived, she looked gorgeous. Her hair had stray strands sticking out of a messy bun at the back but she still looked perfect. She was surrounded by a large group of students so that he almost couldn’t see her. She quickly scanned the room, her eyes landing on him.</p>
<p>She smiled and waved, making a beeline for their spot. Her friends began to follow, but she waved them off and put herself into the seat next to Keith.</p>
<p> “Good morning all, I trust that your sleep was uneventful.” Was she always this peppy and awake? “Lura, it’s too freaking early. I only got 3 hours last night,” Pidge moaned. Allura toned down her voice for the benefit of those who were unable to function so early.</p>
<p>“Fine, we’re going to need to discuss a way to keep this whole thing secret. We also need to discuss some kind of system to meet up. I’m pretty sure only we can enter the room of requirement as Shiro is inside and is the only one who could let people in. So, we’ll negotiate a time every day to meet. We need to get to the bottom of their plans, only then we can tell the world that Shiro is alive.”</p>
<p>“Oh god,” Keith said suddenly looking up. “What?” asked Pidge extremely worried apparently.</p>
<p>“How long will it be until we can tell everyone that Shiro’s alive?” He looked really frantic; Lance wasn’t entirely sure why. It seemed important to him.</p>
<p>“Quite a while, why?”</p>
<p>“Shiro has a boyfriend, well fiancé, he still thinks Shiro’s dead, why can’t we at least tell him?” Allura winced.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry Keith, but people could be looking through our mail or they could be censoring letters. This is for Shiro’s safety.”</p>
<p>“How?”</p>
<p>“This is bigger than everyone in this room combined,” her tone grew angry, Lance had only seen her like this in front of Lotor, “Of course I want Shiro to have his life back but telling the world that he is in fact alive could jeopardise the lives of the galra’s current prisoners. They are everywhere! Not to mention the students in Hogwarts could get seriously harmed if the Galra try to break in here to get Shiro back.” She sighed and seemed to let go of the anger she was holding. “We can’t discuss this here, come.”</p>
<p>She grabbed three pieces of toast and rose from the table. They all went to follow her. Lance looked behind him as they left, there many people gaping at them, and a myriad of surprised, shocked and confused expressions. Allura blew off all her friends to talk to a group of 2<sup>nd</sup> years. He even saw Veronica eying him suspiciously. As they turned to head up a staircase, a drawling yet posh voice spoke from behind making Allura stiffen.</p>
<p>“My dear, lovely to see you. Are you talking with those below your status?” asked Lotor in a mocking voice. “Of course not, your highness,” she returned the tone, he looked like he expected it, “these are my friends. I hang out with who I please. Now, do away with yourself. There is only one princess around here who can pull off snow white luscious locks and she is gracing your presence.”</p>
<p>“Oof,” Lance had to say it, Lotor looked murderous and Allura simply smiled at him for the added effect.</p>
<p>“Then go,” he bowed to her smiling. Did he have fangs? No, just sharp teeth. He had to disagree with Allura; Lotor was pretty much the best-looking boy he’d ever seen. He was tall and slender but very clearly strong. He had a powerful stance that was intimidating and typical of people who are entitled. His hair was long and silvery white. When he strutted down the halls the light caught it as it bounced. Flounced. Whatever. His amber eyes looked like honey and caught you if you looked into them. His slightly pointed ears were delicate and his face was gentle. He had sharp eyes and a sharp jaw line but the rest of his face was soft. His hands were slender and elven, like he was strait out of a fantasy tale. He seemed to sparkle with a conceited kind of energy. He’s handsome and knows it. And apparently he was a hell of a good kisser too. Lance didn’t know where he had heard that.</p>
<p>Though his looks really couldn’t hold a candle to… nope, no n-no. We are stopping that thought before it has a chance to finish. Do not put that thought in your head… Keith. Dammit!</p>
<p>Allura turned on her heel and lead them up the stairs to the room of requirement. Shiro was sitting on his bed examining his right arm for some reason. Lance looked closer and realised that it was, in fact, a prosthetic. He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to practically go to sleep with an arm then wake up with it being gone. Shiro smiled when they came in. Keith walked straight over to him and gave him a stack of toast that he had smuggled from the great hall in the folds of his robe.</p>
<p>“Good to see you Shiro, how was your night?” he ate the toast quickly before answering.</p>
<p>“A lot better than the usual. I’m back at Hogwarts instead of in a dark cell. How long has it been? We had no way of telling the time.” He looked incredibly anxious, something Lance never associated with the man.</p>
<p>“It’s early December, the 4<sup>th</sup>,” said Keith. Shiro’s face fell. “I’ve been gone for four months, people thought I was dead. What about Adam, can I talk to him?  Can I tell him I’m here?” he spoke softly then his voice rose with the questions. Keith looked visibly pained.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, but no one can know you’re alive yet. It’s for your safety and for the other prisoners.” He nodded glumly; they were awkwardly silent for a few minutes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“So, you kids have a plan?” asked Shiro finally breaking the silence. “We simply need to have times for meeting here. Other than that, we just need to keep up the pretence until we are sure it is safe to reveal you. But I don’t think you all know the inner workings of the galra, their impact,” Allura said as if she was gracing an audience. They stared at her.</p>
<p>“How much do you know about the galra?” asked Pidge suspiciously.</p>
<p>“Zarkon used to be my father’s best friend 100 years ago. I believe it is through dark magic that he has been able to live this long. The galra are merciless, their ranks and worth within themselves is determined by their kill count. I believe that they become galra by being branded by the dark mark. The purplish skin discolouration and scars show that of someone who killed willingly. Though, since it has been so long, some are not galra by choice as it becomes genetic. The reason I know this is because my father had many spies in their ranks over the years. Sadly, they all died. But they always said one thing. The galra is a curse. Always ‘is’, never ‘are’. Referring to the galra singularly always confused the aurors. Maybe, through Shiro’s knowledge and getting Matt and Pidge’s father back, we will be able to find the truth about the galra.”</p>
<p>Lance was stunned, this was all so big. He felt even smaller than usual.</p>
<p>“Wow, ok, um. That’s a lot to take in. First off, how available is everyone after school’s over?” asked Lance breaking the tension. “If the only other reason we won’t be meeting is homework, then we could do 7 hours at least collectively on weekends minus game practice as three of us are on school teams. Weekdays require about 2 or so hours at most so we could come here directly after class then leave for homework at 6pm. What?”</p>
<p>Everyone had their shocked stares towards Keith, he worked that out like it was nothing and beat Pidge to it.</p>
<p>“That is a good system. Though every day I spend time with my closest best friend for an hour or so. That is all the time I’ll need outside of this besides studying,” said Allura quickly.</p>
<p>“Sounds good, we should start looking up things about the galra. This is the room of requirement; we can find anything we want.” To emphasise her point, Pidge went to a bookshelf and took off a book called ‘Zarkon before the galra.’</p>
<p>They each went to the shelves and grabbed different books to do with the galra. Pidge managed to get a pile almost as tall as her and even Shiro grabbed a couple. Lance wasn’t even that upset even though he essentially read books all day, with Keith there.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Weeks passed. Every day for at least three hours, they would all meet in the room of requirement for going over the books about the galra. Lance was pretty much fine with the arrangement as he got to see Allura every day (and, y’know, his best friends). He thought about using his lines on her, but he felt like he just didn’t have the confidence, yet.</p>
<p>The bad part about being a paladin was having to see Keith even more than usual, that included actually hanging out with him. What made it worse, was that everyone liked him. He was really similar to Pidge, Shiro was his brother, Allura respected his power and Hunk got over his fear. Even Coran liked him, but did he really count? Coran liked everybody. The weather got gradually colder and before he knew it, the end of term arrived. It was the Thursday before school broke up, he and the other paladins were in the room of requirement about to leave.</p>
<p>Just before they went out, Allura said they needed to discuss something. “We’re all staying for the holiday, correct?”</p>
<p>“What?” gasped Lance, Pidge and Hunk. At the same time, Keith and Shiro nodded. “Why not?” she asked innocently.</p>
<p>“I have to go back home, it’s been months since I’ve seen my family,” said Lance, he never spent Christmas away from his family, ever. They always went back to Cuba; he grew up with it and thought cold Christmas sounded wrong.</p>
<p>“Same here,” Hunk agreed.</p>
<p>“I don’t want my mum to spend Christmas alone,” Pidge said defensively.</p>
<p>“Oh, sorry,” Allura looked ashamed, Lance felt a little bad, “But we need to keep going. This secret is as big as all of us, and it would be preferable if we could keep it that way. plus, less people around means we have the castle all to ourselves.”</p>
<p>“The castle’s awesome without people in it, the holidays cancel out the bad part of Hogwarts,” Keith added.</p>
<p>“We’re not all loners like you,” Lance shot back. “Allura stays here for every holiday. She’s got a tonne of reasons to go home, she’s dedicated to our cause.” Lance wanted to retort something, but he would never in his right mind argue against Allura.</p>
<p>“Well, the work we’re doing is important. I could ask my mum to spend Christmas with my grandparents. Besides, it’s never snowy in London so this would be my first white Christmas,” said Pidge complyingly.</p>
<p>“I guess I could spend my first Christmas away from home here,” said Hunk. Everyone turned to look at Lance.</p>
<p>“Peer pressure isn’t cool guys.” They all did their best puppy eyes, all besides Keith who simply glared.</p>
<p>“Please?” Allura asked in an adorable voice, he couldn’t say no to her. “I’ll see if I can convince my mom, she’ll probably think I’ll freeze to death though.”</p>
<p>Everyone cheered, besides Keith again who produced a week smile accompanied by the most little nose wrinkle (adorable only in the most objective sense though).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lance wrote a letter to his mom asking if he could stay at Hogwarts. She replied with a letter in Spanish saying how much she missed him. He wrote to her again saying that it would be the first time and he would see her soon. After much cajoling, pleading and begging she finally relented. Insisting on at least a letter every other day. He asked Pidge what her mum said. Apparently, she was fine and respected Pidge’s space. In Lance’s family, personal space wasn’t a thing, ever. Hunk’s mums took a bit more convincing, but they too let him stay.</p>
<p>That Saturday, almost everyone left the castle leaving only 15 students. Among them, were Lotor and his generals (lesbians). When he found out, he tried to get his sister to stay so she could talk to the one she liked without anyone else around. She got straight onto a carriage leading to Hogsmeade station and didn’t even say goodbye, her cheeks were quite red amusingly. He headed back to the castle to find Pidge talking with Keith quietly.</p>
<p>“So how did you convince him?” she asked. Who were they talking about? “I said the same thing I told Shiro last year, I wanted to explore the castle, mull over thoughts alone. I was actually sending letters back and forth before Allura asked everyone to stay,” he replied.</p>
<p>“Who are you talking about?” asked Lance approaching. They both jumped at the sound of his voice, it was kind of funny, in a cruel way.</p>
<p>“Shiro’s fiancé, Keith was telling me how he managed to convince him to stay.” Oh. Keith nodded silently and they headed into the great hall for breakfast.</p>
<p>Because Lotor stayed, he intruded on them a lot asking why Allura was talking to them and not her normal friends. They always got into massive sophistically worded fights which left Lance wanting popcorn. He had to admit, the whole thing was kind of nice. Keith was a lot less badly tempered with barely anyone else around. And Shiro managed to make him seem a lot more personable, considering they were still enemies.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Lance woke up on Christmas morning with presents at the end of his bed. He rushed to them excitedly and opened them one after another.</p>
<p>Keith was still asleep. He debated letting him sleep in or not. He shrugged off the thought and continued opening his presents. Keith’s cat leapt onto his chest and started meowing for him to waken, clawing gently at his chest. After a minute or so, he got up and the rubbed sleepy dust from his eyes. He moved to get up and didn’t even seem to notice the small pile of presents by the end of his bed.</p>
<p>“Hey, merry Christmas,” Lance said cheerfully. He could afford to be nice for a single day, he thought his mom would definitely know if he was being rude on Christmas. Keith looked at him quizzically, eyes bright, his hair wasn’t even that messy for just waking up, and where were the bags under his eyes? God, he looked perfectly made up, not fair. He looked down to the end of his bed and brightened immediately.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, I forgot. Merry Christmas Lance,” he said and reached for his presents. Something warm bloomed in his chest, it always did when Keith said his name. Wait, how did he forget Christmas, it was the best holiday of the year.</p>
<p>“How did you forget it was Christmas?” he asked pulling on his new knitted jumper. His mom made it for him as he was still in England and it was cold.</p>
<p>“This is my second, well, technically third. We didn’t do much the year before Hogwarts because Shiro and Adam were really busy, so I count my first Christmas as last year.” Lance’s eyes widened in shock.</p>
<p>“Really? You didn’t have Christmas in foster care?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t have anything in foster care, never did. Barely had any clothes to take with me when Shiro took me out. We were told that celebrations we hear about in school were for muggles only. Last year was the first I got presents and my broom was the first time I got given one in person.” Lance looked down; he had no idea what to say to that.</p>
<p>He looked back at Keith and watched as he happily tore the wrapping paper off his presents. They were mostly books and some sweets. Fudge, Bertie Bott’s, fizzing whizbies, sugar quills, the works. There was also an array of biscuits (cookies as Lance called them) that were seemingly homemade. Shiro’s fiancé was apparently a dab hand at baking. </p>
<p>He put his books off to the side and called Kosmo onto his bed. The cat sat obediently opposite from him as he reached under his bed. He came back up but it looked like he wasn’t holding anything. He placed the invisible thing before his cat, he looked up at Keith sceptically. He waved his wand at the thing and an invisibility charm wore off. It was some kind of big treat. Kosmo started eating it happily.</p>
<p>“Merry Christmas boy,” Keith said stroking the cosmic blue fur. It was a heart-warming scene, adorable, thought Lance.</p>
<p>The rest of the day was incredible, it turned out that a white Christmas was awesome. He spent the whole day with his friends, half in the room of requirement and half outside and at meals. Allura had disappeared for a few hours, longer than her usual leave. Keith insisted that they all spend an hour with the houselves, it was actually pretty nice, they were great people to talk with. The whole day was comprised of awesome food, games and talks. He never knew how fun it would be playing in the snow with his friends, all thoughts about the galra gone for one day.</p>
<p>He didn’t start any arguments that day leaving everyone a little surprised, but Keith looked happier than usual. Was it a coincidence?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading, a daily dose of confusing galra history and naturally klance moments. <br/>If you plan on keep reading, chapter 8 is a lot. it just is a lot</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Quidditch, and a Sealing Bonding Moment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Half a year combined into a single chapter. Holidays, parties and quidditch. And naturally, the infamous bonding moment.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter is probably one of my favourites, it has so much in it and I love all the precious klance scenes. God they are so oblivious, granted that Keith's 13 and Lance's 12.<br/>I read my sister the bonding moment and I quote, 'It's better than the original!' I personally don't think so but it made me happy that she did.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was becoming so tiring, Lance felt like he never had a moment to relax. Every day, he had school, then he had galra research, then studying and finally sleep. And repeat. He never had free time on the weekends, he would spend so many hours researching the galra, then he would have to do brutal quidditch practice and to top it off, more studying. He hoped that it would all pay off, they would destroy the galra, he would get out of Hogwarts with perfect grades and have his friends by his side. Maybe by then, things would work out with Allura.</p>
<p>Some days he was lucky, Pidge or Allura would announce a dead end and they would do whatever the hell they wanted. He just wanted to play games with his friends, Keith would join in occasionally and win a lot, he didn’t like that part though.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Months passed and Lance adjusted to the new life. His body started conserving all the sleep he got and was more energetic. Their map for possible galra hide outs was getting bigger and was putting everyone in a better mood.</p>
<p>He enjoyed the Saturdays where Allura would meet with her other friends and he could watch her work her magic. Somehow, Lotor would always crash and they would get into heated arguments. Eventually everyone would join in, but they always stopped before it became physical.</p>
<p>He never missed how his sister would blush when she would get closer to Lotor’s generals (lesbians).</p>
<p>But something always managed to confound him, at every fight with Lotor, he and Allura would always disappear. It was clear no one knew how or why, and no one suspected anything. She would appear later and still no one said anything. Shiro, Hunk and Pidge fully accepted it, but he could always see curiosity spark in Keith’s eyes. Whenever something was left unsaid or something wasn’t explained, Keith vowed to figure it out.</p>
<p>He was determined like that, if he wanted something, he would get it eventually. He’s so stubborn it’s <strike>cute</strike> annoying.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh, that’s horrible,” Allura exclaimed one day. They all looked up from their various positions. Shiro was sitting cross-legged on his bed, Pidge sat on a beanbag like in her room, Lance by the edge of a bookshelf, Keith on top of said bookshelf (no-one knows how he got up there), Allura in the middle of the floor now sitting up and Hunk in his armchair. “What is it?” asked Lance looking intently over his book.</p>
<p>“The druids would practice ancient magic and curses on their numerous prisoners. They tried to turn muggles into weapons somehow by putting magic in their blood then sending them to work. Magic and muggle blood doesn’t react well together, all died and took the other muggles in the rooms with them.” Pidge felt sick to her stomach, it was so incredibly twisted. Grotesque. All of the things that they had found so far just solidified their preconceptions about the galra, a vile group of dark souls. There wasn’t even a point to it, which made it even worse.</p>
<p>“I am so glad they’re locked up. I hope they never get out,” said Shiro bristling.</p>
<p>“Don’t answer if you don’t want to,” everyone looked to Keith even though the question was directed at Shiro, “Do you remember anything that happened to you with the galra?” He looked down in concentration. Pidge wondered how he felt, was he guilty about something that happened while in captivity? Did it have to do with her father and brother? Everyone paused, after about 15 seconds it seemed he wasn’t going to say anything. The silence stretched and time stood still. They all returned to their tasks except for Shiro. It was almost 10 minutes before anyone spoke again.</p>
<p>“They took my arm, they realised I had a disease and took my arm which was the source of the problem. They used pure power to create this one, like you said Allura, I believe they tried to turn me into a weapon.”</p>
<p>“It’s a good thing you got out then, how did you manage to do that?” asked Hunk in a reassuring, calm tone, which never failed to sooth the person he was talking to. It always managed to calm Lance and Pidge when they had their occasional spirals.</p>
<p>“It’s a blur. I think…” he paused for a second then gasped, flapping his hands “oh, right. I was protecting Matt.”</p>
<p>What? He was protecting her brother? Had something happened? Pidge was sure that Matt was not dead. She would have felt it if her brother left the world, there was no way he was gone. He didn’t even say a proper goodbye.</p>
<p>“He gave me a wand, I distracted the guards and told him to run. I don’t know if he got away, but they were trying to brand us with the mark. I managed to summon just enough strength to apparate beside the forbidden forest, but I was followed. You know the rest.” He pulled up the sleeve of his left arm and sure enough, there was a small red line with a triangle taken out. It looked like someone attempted to brand him with the mark, but he got away before it finished. The area surrounding it was purple and contained.</p>
<p>“You almost became galra,” Allura said softly. They went quiet for a moment.</p>
<p>Then there was the sound of someone jumping from a high perch. Pidge didn’t understand how he managed to climb the bookcase so fast, he seemed to have catlike reflexes.</p>
<p>“We have a lead, people become galra by being branded by the mark.” Keith walked over to the wall of leads and stuck a note on it.</p>
<p>“But what about genetics. Dumbledore said that some students would be galra, they can’t all just be branded, maybe one could be born galra because one's parents were,” Lance said quickly. Keith nodded and wrote something next to the note. Pidge had never heard Lance refer to a person in question by one, it was actually kind of amusing.</p>
<p>“What about the scars?” asked Pidge. “What scars?” asked Keith looking at her pointedly.</p>
<p>“In some of these books, the galra talk about earning their scars. Maybe along the lines they get scars for doing bad things, maybe that’s how you can differentiate between people who became and people who were born that way.” Keith nodded and wrote another note on the board.</p>
<p>“It’s a good theory, but how can we be sure?” asked Allura.</p>
<p>“The girl who was outed as galra last year,” Keith began, “Acxa.”</p>
<p>“Acxa, she had no scars on her, no markings. Maybe she was born galra but didn’t ‘earn’ scars. I remember being faced with a galra directly, he had scars all over his face.” Pidge guessed who he was talking about, but apparently Lance didn’t have a clue and the idiot opened his big mouth.</p>
<p>“Who?” Keith gave him a hard stare. “The man who invented the galra, a mass murder who killed both my parents and who I somehow managed to kill at the age of one.” Thankfully something distracted them from the awkward silence that had ensued. Someone was attempting to come in.</p>
<p>“I’ll deal with it,” Allura said tiredly and slipped from the room. And they lapsed back into an awkward silence.</p>
<p>“So how did you do it?” asked Lance. ‘For the love of god, you idiot shut up,’ thought Pidge. To her surprise, Keith answered. “I don’t know, I was really young when it happened. One second he had a wand pointed at me, the next he was on the ground dead. All I remember is my dad protecting me and a flash of light. I think I somehow managed to get a hold of his wand. Then Zarkon was on the floor.”</p>
<p>“Maybe people should be more appreciative that you took out the leader of a plague to the wizarding world,” Lance said brightly trying to lift the mood. Thank god he was trying to be nice for once, Pidge had figured Christmas was a one off.</p>
<p>“I thought that too when I came here. Then I remembered that they’ve had 11 years to screw their heads on right.” They somehow came to the silent conclusion to go back to their books to avoid the awkward topic hanging over the room like a blanket.</p>
<p>Pidge looked at her watch, it had been about 20 minutes since Allura disappeared and she really did not want to be stuck in a room with these awkward idiots any longer. She got up and went to the door.</p>
<p>“Hey Lura, what you still doing out here?” she asked stepping out the great door. She saw her at the end of the hall. Her cheeks were quite flushed and her hair slightly messy. She bit her lip nervously.</p>
<p>“Are you ok?” asked Pidge as she walked over. “Quite alright I assure you, I got into a bit of a fight with the person outside. I managed to make them walk off before you came out.” The flush faded from her cheeks and she patted her hair down before gathering it and bringing it up into her trademark bun.</p>
<p>Pidge couldn’t help but be curious. She couldn’t hear anything from inside the room but Allura’s attitude was positive. It definitely did not seem like she had been fighting. Was she hiding something?</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The Easter holidays arrived, and they all decided to stay once more. Keith spent two weeks sending letters back and forth with Adam. He managed to convince him to let him stay.</p>
<p>Pidge apparently had it easier as her mum was ‘cool with what she wanted to do and respected her choices’ or something like that. Hunk and Lance on the other hand were sending letters back and forth for a week.</p>
<p>Keith occasionally heard Lance complaining about what his mother said in her letters. Things like, ‘!no tengo mira tú en más mes! Nosotros extrañamos Lancito.’ Keith could guess what one of those words meant and stuck to calling Lance Lancito for a week. He found it increasingly annoying and his reaction was ten times funnier when Keith put on his crappy Spanish accent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Easter came around, he got sent another big homemade chocolate egg; this one was dark chocolate that was almost an inch thick, decorated in little brooms and came with marzipan snitches and a bag of Adam’s homemade fudge. Honestly, he could see why Shiro chose him. The others also got eggs from home (though theirs weren’t nearly as nice as Keith’s in his humble opinion). Allura got one made out of white chocolate and freeze-dried strawberry pieces; Hunk got a few small ones of different types. Lance got a milk chocolate one filled with different Cuban biscuits, cookies. Pidge got a couple of store-bought ones; they all shared a piece of their extravagant eggs with her.</p>
<p>When they got up to the room of requirement, they found Shiro smiling widely. Using his ‘dad what did you do’ smile that makes people instantly suspicious that some kind of high jinks were going on. Keith gave him the other half of the egg that cradled a marzipan snitch and two pieces of Adam’s fudge as he explained what he had done.</p>
<p>“A houself came in here and found me, somehow. Something about having access to all the castle’s secrets. Anyway, I asked her if the houselves would be so kind to make some eggs for a hunt. She happily obliged and brought some up. I’ve hidden them all in this room under different charms. The faster you figure out which spells you need, the more eggs you’ll get.” That was a fun surprise, something worthy of the “dad what did you do’ smile. They spent an hour or so looking for the eggs.</p>
<p>There were 20 in total. Keith and Lance each found 5, Allura found 4, Pidge and Hunk both found 3. Allura grumbled about the fact that she was the oldest yet somehow, she didn’t find the most. And Lance wouldn’t stop going on about how he found as many eggs as Keith and said, ‘face it we’re rivals.’</p>
<p>Keith cracked opened one of his eggs and poured the caramel filling on Lance’s head. He shrieked, causing everyone to crack up. Pidge ended up on the floor. Shiro attempted to tell him off by activating ‘dad voice<sup>TM</sup>’ but was laughing too hard to get the words out.</p>
<p>“Oh, you are so going to get it Kogane!” he yelled and chased after him. They ran around the room as everyone collapsed in fits of giggles. The walls seemed to move outward as they scrambled after each other. “Aguamenti!” yelled Lance. Keith couldn’t see where he aimed his wand but the next thing he knew, he was slipping. He fell to the floor with a thud. He tried to get up but Lance pinned him to the ground. He couldn’t stop laughing though.</p>
<p>No longer fighting entrapment he stared at Lance’s sticky hair, the boy was uncharacteristically silent and simply staring back at him, eyes cloudy with thought, brow ever so slightly ruffled. Keith giggled, “That looks like its’s gonna take forever to get out.”</p>
<p>“Oh, fuck off!” Lance’s face relaxed. Keith kept laughing but noticed that the others’ laughter was dying down. “Then get off me.” He smirked up at his dark, pretty face. Wait… pretty?</p>
<p>He took his hands off and let Keith get up. All in all, the day had been great but why did he think Lance was pretty? Surely, he meant objectively so? Because objectively, yeah, Lance is pretty. And his eyes are nice. Objectively.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>It was almost the end of the year and the last game of the season was coming up. Lance was determined to do his house proud. He waited in the changing rooms with the others. The chasers brooded as usual, acting all stoic with Keith by their side. Nyma looked confident and he really hoped he was mirroring her expression. “Alright team, for once we’re in the lead.” They cheered. “I really can’t thank our second years enough, I feel proud to be on the team that will take Gryffindor to glory!”</p>
<p>“Whoo! Go Gryffindor! Three cheers for Keith and Lance,” shouted Nyma. Everyone besides Keith joined in. Lance liked to get praised whereas Keith hated it. He hated any form of attention really.</p>
<p>“Alright, we’re in the lead but Ravenclaw is really close. This is our last game with them, they were close to beating us last time. Lance, no staring at the princess this time,” he glared at her for singling him out. “I won’t stare at her if you won’t stare at the Slytherin stands looking for a certain someone.” she stared at him dead in the eyes, he stared right back.</p>
<p>“Regardless, we’ll need a 220-point lead at most. The second we hit 70, I want the snitch. But if we get to 100, don’t let it stop you as long as we beat them, got it?” they nodded.</p>
<p>“Then let’s go beat some blue ass!” they cheered again and waited to be called to the pitch. Gryffindor was called out first.</p>
<p>“Alright, alright. Put your hands together for the Gryffindor team, we’re hoping for glory for once,” “Jorden,” McGonagall’s voice rang out.</p>
<p>“Sorry professor. Let’s have it, for Veronica, Kolivan, Antok, Regris, Nyma, Lance and Keith!” They walked out in order as the stands erupted in cheers. The Gryffindor team hadn’t done well in 14 years, since Keith’s dad was on the team apparently. There was a lot riding on this one game.</p>
<p>“Now, introducing the Ravenclaw team. Beezer, Ina, Olia, Florona, Valkala, D’geen and naturally, the stunning princess Allura.” Cheers came from all the stands besides the red and gold although all cheered for Gryffindor. Lance could see Allura rolling her eyes from across the pitch.</p>
<p>McGonagall told Lee off again and Veronica stepped forward to shake hands with the quidditch captain. Olia was quite small and wore glasses, she looked like the type to be made fun of then assert dominance as a leader. She and Veronica shook hands then they rose into the air.</p>
<p>He took his respective position in the air and waited for the balls to come into effect. The bludgers shot from the box, so did the snitch, but it wasn’t his job to focus on that. He shifted the bat in his hands. A bludger flew towards Antok, Lance managed to fly over and shoot it off towards the chaser at the Gryffindor hoops. Darn chaser swerved. “And that was a nice shot from Lance, honestly the most accurate beater I’ve seen in a while. I’m sure the Ladies’ll be just fawning over this handsome boy.”</p>
<p>“Jordan”</p>
<p>“Yes, yes professor. And there goes Veronica, blocking yet another goal. Damn that girl is good. I still haven’t been able to get her to go out with me though.” 'There's a reason for that,' thought Lance. McGonagall just shook her head.</p>
<p>The quaffle passed from chaser to chaser. A bludger got hit toward Nyma and Lance shot it straight back at the beater. Nyma fluttered her eyes at Lance and he blushed. “Oooh that sounded painful, a nice shot from Lance, good clean hit to the stomach and some illegal pitch flirting with that other beater.”</p>
<p>“Jordan I swear I will kick you out of this booth”</p>
<p>“Oh come on professor, you love me. Oh yessss! Score! Ten points to Gryffindor. And Olia has the quaffle…” He faded out the sound of the game and knuckled down. He shot a bludger toward Ina who got hit in the arm. There was the crunch of bones as she fell from the sky. Madame Hooch swept her up and took her to the infirmary. In quiddich once a player is out the team must play on without them. He stopped another bludger from hitting Keith but he just scowled.</p>
<p>“Another ten points for Gryffindor, it’s looking grim for Ravenclaw.”</p>
<p>Lance was feeling great; he took a chaser and a beater out of the game. They were at a lead of 90-30. Veronica let a few get in just because she was feeling sorry for the other team. The last game they won against Ravenclaw was 190-50. They had been practically at a stalemate until Keith pulled another ridiculous stunt and caught the snitch. He was chased again after that.</p>
<p>Lance was flying in the middle of the pitch close to Nyma but not super close. He was surveying the game and Antok was flying towards the hoops at the other end. The keeper was tiny and bore a resemblance to Nyma. He stood his ground and didn’t even shrink under the massive student’s gaze. Antok readied to throw the quaffle and threw it into another hoop. Lance saw the boy visibly curse before Lee yelled into the speaker.</p>
<p>“And Gryffindor is in the lead with 100-30. Bad luck Ravenclaw” Cheers erupted across and Lance felt incredibly proud. Without him, they’d probably be at 90-60 but he managed to really help the team with defence. Keith was currently circling Allura who looked very, very moody.</p>
<p>Suddenly there was a gold ball in front of him. “Keith!” he called, and the boy could see exactly what he meant. The golden ball stayed in front of him as Keith hurtled towards him with Allura on his tail.</p>
<p>He smiled then his vision blotched white. All the air in his chest came out and he couldn’t breathe. He dropped his bat and suddenly he was falling. Someone called out his name, but Lance couldn’t hear anything. He could still see the glint of gold in front of him as he fell, and suddenly strong arms wrapped around him. He used all his strength to open his eyes and take a look at his saviour.</p>
<p>Time seemed to stop as he stared directly in those dark cosmic violet eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, and he knew that. Eyes filled with soul that reminded him of the view from his window and those beautiful violets. Time returned and he heard the shout of the commentator.</p>
<p>“He caught the snitch! Keith Kogane caught the snitch and then caught Lance directly out of the air! Gryffindor wins the cup!” Lance wanted to cheer but he couldn’t breathe. He was still in Keith’s arms when he lost consciousness. He muttered something he was pretty sure Keith couldn’t hear. “We did it, we are a good team.” He might have been mistaken, but he was pretty sure that the violet boy smiled back.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Keith somehow convinced the entire house to wait for Lance to get out of the hospital wing before celebrating winning the cup. Everyone was pretty annoyed they couldn’t party straight away, but they only had to wait a day as Lance got out Sunday morning.</p>
<p>As soon as he walked out the door, his friends bombarded him. “Oh dude, it was so scary. Florona, the beater you didn’t take out, hit the bludger so hard. It was so much more dramatic than when you got those other two out cause Keith like, took you out of the sky,” Hunk said, he looked pretty scared but happy to see him at the same time.</p>
<p>Keith looked even shyer than usual as they walked to Gryffindor tower. “Thanks man,” he said trying to catch the boy’s eye. “Don’t mention it,” he said simply.</p>
<p>“Shame I missed the party though; I was really looking forward to it.”</p>
<p>“You didn’t,” Pidge said excitedly and almost ran up the stairs, “Keith convinced the entire house to wait for you cause without you, Gryffindor wouldn’t be having one.”</p>
<p>“Really?” That was out of character. “Yeah, I just thought you shouldn’t miss it, I wouldn’t have caught the snitch if you hadn’t pointed it out. We made a good team.” So, he did hear, but he still wouldn’t look Lance in the eye.</p>
<p>“Are you going to stay this time?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, Lura said there was no way I was missing a party being thrown because I was faster than her. She was a pretty good sport though, she looked murderous but there weren’t any brooms being thrown.” They reached the portrait hole and slipped in. Someone practically jumped on him, it was Veronica. The entire room was decorated with banners red and gold banners and the quidditch cup was in his sister’s hands.</p>
<p>“Here are the boys we owe this to! We finally broke the record! Gryffindor! Gryffindor! Gryffindor!” People chanted with her and she thrust the cup into his hands. He smiled widely; this was awesome.</p>
<p>Pidge and Hunk slipped into the crowd while Keith stayed next to him. He manoeuvred through the crowd and set the cup down on a table. He got to talk to a lot of girls that night, it was incredible. He then caught a glimpse of Keith surrounded by a group of girls and a few boys; Lance had never seen him look so uncomfortable. He weaved through the small crowd and dragged Keith away by the wrist leaving the group looking disappointed. Keith breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” he muttered. “Don’t mention it.” Keith still had his eyes glued to the floor.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong?” He just couldn’t be mean to him when he looked so vulnerable. “I’m just not good with people, never have been. This is all kind of freaky not to mention it’s like no one here knows what personal space is.” Lance outright laughed; clearly this boy he had no idea what was going on.</p>
<p>“What’s so funny?” he finally looked up at Lance.</p>
<p>“You don’t know why they’re crowding you. It’s funny.”</p>
<p>“Why is that funny? Didn’t you realise how much I hated that people would just waltz over for no apparent reason then talk to me in weird tones?” Lance had to put a hand on Keith’s shoulder to steady himself practically hyperventilating from amusement.</p>
<p>“It’s just funny. Those people who keep coming over are interested,” Keith cocked his head to one side confused, “In you.” He still looked confused. “Oh my- they’re flirting with you.” Keith’s eyes widened and his cheeks darkened. “What?” he asked quietly so Lance had a hard time hearing.</p>
<p>“Dude, they either think you’re good looking, are impressed with your quidditch skills or are thankful that you killed Zarkon. What did you think was happening?”</p>
<p>“I thought it was some kind of game, or, I don’t know. I don’t really know how people work, besides not liking people in general, it was one of the reasons I didn’t make friends. Did Pidge tell you she was my first friend? Why did you think I was always so reluctant to do anything involving Voltron?” Now Lance was speechless, he didn’t know any of that. He just thought Keith was trying to play the edgelord emo tough guy.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know, sorry, just stick next to me if you want to keep being antisocial.” Thankfully Keith didn’t take that as an insult and stuck to Lance’s side for almost the entire night. He wandered off at one point to talk to the chasers then came back when more people started coming over. He and the other paladins stuck together, and they left around 11.30pm.</p>
<p>He decided to call it a night as he was definitely running out of lines to use. He really needed some new ones. He walked over to the staircase then noticed with a start Keith wasn’t next to him. He scanned the room and found him standing pretty close to an older Slytherin, he wasn’t exactly sure why that boy was there but when Lance caught Keith’s eye, he looked panicked.</p>
<p>Lance strode over and pulled Keith away by the arm and up the second year’s staircase. Keith burst through the door and fell on his bed.</p>
<p>“Finally,” he groaned and Kosmo popped up and began licking his face like a dog. One of the cutest things he’d seen. No, n-no stop it. do not think about your rival like that. The <em>cat</em> was cute. Not Keith.</p>
<p>He fell asleep almost straight away trying to convince himself that his most definite rival was not attractive, or adorably socially awkward or that he probably saved Lance’s life. He most definitely didn’t share a bonding moment with his <strike>super cute</strike> enemy.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Finally, the year was almost over. Keith and Lance had resumed being at each other’s throats even after the party. Keith swore he saw the others rolling their eyes a few times. It was a few days before the train would take them back to civilisation.</p>
<p>He and the other paladins, and knight of course, stood outside Dumbledore’s office. “It’s always a sweet,” said Pidge in a bored tone. “Jelly slugs,” called Hunk. The statue didn’t move. Keith groaned; this was getting annoying.</p>
<p>“Mars bar!” shouted Lance. The statue moved and revealed a rounded staircase. Wow, just wow. As they were about to head up, Dumbledore came down and saw them all.</p>
<p>“Ah, Ms. Altea, Ms. Holt, Mr. Kogane, Mr. McClain and Mr. Garrett, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked politely as he descended from the last step.</p>
<p>“Professor, please tell me the password is not mars bar,” Keith asked tiredly. “Why of course it is, it is my favourite muggle chocolate bar.”</p>
<p>“Professor,” Allura started and he faced her, “we have something you need to see.” He followed them all the way up to the 7<sup>th</sup> floor corridor. Allura walked back and forth then the door materialised, no doubt Shiro would be annoyed that they were late. They filed in quickly.</p>
<p>“And you all seem to be about,” he stopped as soon as he saw the headmaster. “Takashi?” he asked dumfounded.</p>
<p>“I thought it was dangerous for him to know,” Shiro said exasperatedly.</p>
<p>“We discussed it this morning, it’s been almost a year since your disappearance. Hopefully Dumbledore will give you back your position and you’ll stay here for your safety. We won’t tell anyone else, students may be allowed to go home with stories but, you should be safe,” Allura spoke as if addressing a crowd. “The current teacher is, not to mince words, but terrible, I would love to have you back in staff,” Dumbledore said proudly.</p>
<p>Shiro smiled, “I would love to, does this mean I can finally send an owl to Adam?” They all looked down, they really, really wanted to.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry Takashi, but it would be for your, the students and the others’ safety. The only mention of you would be from the students, and maybe Haxus.” Shiro looked like a kicked puppy, it made Keith physically hurt.</p>
<p>“I understand.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The next day at dinner, Dumbledore announced that an old teacher has come back to replace Haxus. The entire hall cheered, they all hated him. “Please welcome back, professor Shirogane.” Shiro walked through the small door and the entire hall went silent. It was apparent that a few teachers didn’t know about this arrangement and gawked. It must have been a strange sight, for a teacher who was supposedly dead to come back sporting white bangs, a giant scar and a prosthetic.  He took his seat at the staff table and Keith could see Slav excitedly ranting at him. Shiro looked close to breaking a fork, he was practically shouting, ‘well shit, I forgot about him.’</p>
<p>The rest of dinner was nice, Lance kept going on about how much he missed his family, apparently, he’d never been away from them for so long. The others interjected with things they missed about their families. He’d only been half listening when he realised, they were all staring at him.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Tell us something about Adam or what home’s like,” said Pidge.</p>
<p>“Oh, well, it always smells like biscuits.” “Cookies,” Lance interrupted.</p>
<p>“You’re the only part American here so shush, biscuits. Anyway, he’s a professional astronomer and we chart stars together.”</p>
<p>“That sounds fun, I sometimes help my father with ministry work and my mother with her business dealings.”</p>
<p>“No offence Allura, but that doesn’t sound fun,” said Hunk. They all went back into the conversation about homes and it actually made Keith feel very warm and loved, he hadn’t felt like that in a while.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The ride home was pleasant. Allura sat in their carriage and shooed away the friends who asked her to come with them. When the trolly stopped by, she bought almost everything off it. They talked happily about random things as they ate and changed into their clothes. “If you like this, just wait for Hogsmeade,” Allura commented while nibbling on a chocolate frog. “Hogsmeade?” asked Hunk.</p>
<p>“Third years and above are allowed to go into town on Saturdays about once a month or so, I only went before becoming a knight of Voltron, since then I’ve dedicated my time to our research.”</p>
<p>“Sounds awesome! We can all go together. What kind of stores are there?” Lance asked excitedly. Allura looked confused, they all did. “Oh right, shops.”</p>
<p>“There’s many, Zonko’s joke shop, Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks and The Hogs Head are pubs, it’s a very nice place to go and Honeydukes beats any other sweetshop. I expect we’d all be able to go together.”</p>
<p>Before they knew it, and rather too soon, the train came to a stop at platform 9 ¾. Pidge secured rover and Lance and Keith put their cats back in their cages. They were some of the last students off the train.</p>
<p>Allura ran over to a middle-aged but still quite a young-looking couple. Keith knew they were both over 100 years old and wore it well. They both had silvery white hair and crescent moons under their eyes. Unlike Allura’s, theirs were the same shade of lilac. He remembered her mentioning that since Alteas were distantly related, they could marry and if an Altea had feelings for another, they would wear the same colour and shade of markings.</p>
<p>Lance ran over to a short woman and a taller man, there were a few young adults who bore a resemblance to him and his sister. The smaller woman must have been his mother, she was speaking furiously to him and Lance looked a little scared. She was probably annoyed about the fact that she hadn’t seen her son in almost a year.</p>
<p>Hunk ran over to his parents, both tall and dark, though he was taller than his mother. He hugged two small children who bore a very close resemblance, twin siblings most likely.</p>
<p>Pidge walked over to her mother. They embraced and whispered to each other, then left quickly. He decided that he liked their dynamic.</p>
<p>He finally laid eyes on Adam who was waiting near the wall. He took his bags over quickly and ran to the tall man. He practically ran into him and hugged him tightly. Adam was stunned, he could feel it, but Keith knew that Adam needed it. He hugged him back and they piled his bags on a trolly.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Keith had spent the entire summer with Adam looking at the stars. Sometimes they baked together and very occasionally, Keith corrected parts in Adam’s charts. He would always correct them with a fond look. Keith realised he liked this look, he liked that it was directed at him. He wished every day that he could tell him Shiro was still alive.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Allura spent her summer, like usual, at the ministry. Her parents had days off occasionally and they would go to the beach. People always stared; they always did. Whether it was at their hair, their markings or looks in generals. Alteas were known for being good-looking.</p>
<p>At the ministry, she helped her father with filing, cases and general minister work. She helped her mother write accounts and helped her with managing. She was a business owner for many magical companies and worked on their finances. Allura enjoyed the time she spent working with her parents, though her favourite part of the day was when they would come home and eat together.</p>
<p>Whether her parents made it or a chef, they discussed their days and it was the happiest she felt. Naturally, her day was always brightened with letters from her secret partner. Not a single person knew about them, and it made the partnership all the more exhilarating.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Pidge spent the entire summer on holiday.</p>
<p>Her mother had worked incredibly hard over the year and saved her holiday time for the next four weeks. She earned a lot and planned a trip around Europe, Pidge had always wanted to see different wizarding culture. She wrote in the shared group chat about her travels.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Hunk was on holiday too. He cooked with both his parents a lot and played with his siblings; they were generally fun to hang out with.</p>
<p>He wrote to his friends every day and told them about the different dishes he made and the places he went. He went to visit his grandparents in Hawaii and learnt to make traditional Hawaiian dishes like poke, kalua pork and poi. He got a new shirt that was bright with yellow hibiscus and green leaves.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Lance went back to Cuba. He almost cried when he saw Veradero beach, he had missed it so much. They partied into the night and everything was loud. His siblings yelling at each other, his small adorable baby niece and nephew.</p>
<p>It was all so much warmer than the English countryside and he was grateful for it. Then July 28<sup>th</sup> arrived. He woke up to his notebook vibrating.</p>
<p>“Happy birthday my amazing best friend!” Hunk’s writing spelled out in dark yellow ink.</p>
<p>“Happy B-day ma dude. It’s actually 1pm over here in Spain, I was waiting for you,” said Pidge’s dark green ink.</p>
<p>“Oh, happy birthday Lance, I hope you have a wonderful day,” Allura’s pink writing formed on the page. He could practically hear her posh accent.</p>
<p>“Thanks guys, I’m a teenager now, whoo.”</p>
<p>“Join the club buddy, hey Keith,” said Hunk’s writing. It was a few minutes before the bright yet dark red appeared.</p>
<p>“Well done, and you’re the last to be one of us.” Lance bristled then more appeared. “Happy birthday.” He smiled, at least Keith said it.</p>
<p>His whole day was a giant party centred around him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how Keith actually joined in for once and wished him happy birthday, it made him feel all warm inside. Like a good hug.</p>
<p>And the violets on his windowsill flourished.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading, the bonding moment was probably my favourite part. Comment and tell me any areas of improvment.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading. The plot thickens further and soon Keith will actually know Lance's name. <br/>I know this won't get many reads so thanks for getting this far.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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